'"miiiiiiiu"! 


iillHUU 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 
IRELAND  AND  SCOTLAND 


Magna  Charta,    121."):    King  John  submits  to  the   Barons, 
and  signs   the  (/reat  Charter  of  British   Liberties. 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF 

ENGLAND,  IRELAND 
AND  SCOTLAND 


BY 

MARY   PLATT  PARMELE 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1907 


Copyright,  1895,  by 
WILLIAM   BEVERLEY  HARISON 


Copyright,  1898,  1900,  1906,  by 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


D  A 


tz, 


1 


PREFACE 

Will  the  readers  of  this  little  work  please 
bear  in  mind  the  difficulties  which  must  at- 
tend the  painting  of  a  very  large  picture, 
with  multitudinous  characters  and  details, 
upon  a  very  small  canvas  !  This  book  is 
mainly  an  attempt  to  trace  to  their  sources 
some  of  the  currents  which  enter  into  the 
life  of  Great  Britain  to-day,  and  to  indicate 
the  starting-points  of  some  among  the  vari- 
ous threads— legislative,  Judicial,  social,  etc. 
— which  are  gathered  into  the  imposing 
strand  of  English  civilization  in  this  closing 
nineteenth  century. 

The  reader  will  please  observe  that  there 
seem  to  have  been  two  things  most  closely 
interwoven  wath  the  life  of  England — Re- 
ligion and  MONEY  have  been  the  great 
evolutionary  factors  in  her  development. 

It  has   been,  first,  the  resistance  of  the 


1 7naf^r;i 


PREFACE. 

peopie  to  the  extortions  of  money  by  the 
ruling  class,  and  second,  the  violating  of 
their  religious  instincts,  which  has  made 
nearly  all  that  is  vital  in  English  history. 

The  lines  upon  which  the  government  has 
developed  to  its  present  constitutional  form 
are  chiefly  lines  of  resistance  to  oppressive 
enactments  in  these  two  matters.  The 
dynastic  and  military  history  of  England, 
although  picturesque  and  interesting,  is 
really  only  a  narrative  of  the  external 
causes  which  have  impeded  the  nation's 
growth  toward  its  ideal  of  "  the  greatest 
possible  good  to  the  greatest  possible  num- 
ber." 

The  historic  development  of  Ireland 
and  Scotland,  and  the  events  which  have 
brought  these  two  countries  into  organic 
union  with  England  are,  of  necessity,  very 
briefly  related. 

M.  P.  P. 


CONTEISTTS 

HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 
Chapter  I. 

PAGE 

Ancient  Britain — Cfesar's  Invasion — Britain  a  Ro- 
man Province — Boadicea — Lyndin  or  London 
— Roman  Legions  Withdrawn — Angles  and 
Saxons  —  Cerdic  —  Teutonic  Invasion — Eng- 
lish Kingdoms  Consolidated 9 

Chapter  II. 

Augustine — Edwin  —  Csedmon — Baeda — Alfred — 
Canute — Edward  the  Confessor — Harold — 
William  the  Conqueror 25 

Chapter  III. 

"Gilds"  and  Boroughs — William  II. — Crusades 
— Henry  I. — Henry  II. — Becket's  Death — 
Ki chard  I. — John — Magna  Charta 40 

Chapter  IV. 

Henry  III. — Roger  Bacon — First  True  Parlia- 
ment— Edward  I. — Conquest  of  Wales — of 
Scotland— Edward  II.— Edward  III.— Battle 
of  Cr^cy— Richard  II.— WickliHe 51 


CONTENTS, 
Chapter  V. 

PAGE 

House  of  Lancaster — Henry  IV. — Henry  V. — 
Agincourt — Battle  of  Orleans — Wars  of  the 
Roses — House  of  York— Edward  IV. — Rich- 
ard III. — Henry  VII. — Printing  Introduced.     63 

Chapter  VI. 

Henry  VIII . —  Wolsey  —  Reformation — Edward 
VL— Mary 73 

Chapter  VII. 

Elizabeth — East  India  Company  Chartered — 
Colonization  of  Virginia — Flodden  Field — 
Birth  of  Mary  Stuart— Mary  Stuart's  Death 
— Spanish  Armada — Francis  Bacon 83 

Chapter  VIII. 

James  I. — First  New  England  Colony — Grunpow- 
der  Plot — Translation  of  Bible — Charles  I. — 
Archbishop  Laud — John  Hampden — Petition 
of  Eight — Massachusetts  Chartered — Earl 
Strafford — Star  Chamber 97 

Chapter  IX. 

Long  Parliament — Death  of  Strafford  and  Laud 
— OUver  Cromwell — Death  of  Charles  I. — 
Long  Parliament  Dispersed — Charles  II 114 


CONTENTS. 
Chapter  X. 

PAGB 

Act  of  Habeas  Corpus — Death  of  Charles  II. — 
Milton — Bunyan — James  II. — William  and 
Mary — Battle  of  the  Boyne 123 

Chapter  XI. 

Anne  —  Marlborough* —  Battle  of  Blenheim  — 
House  of  Hanover — George  I. — George  II. — 
Walpole — British  Dominion  in  India — Bat- 
tle of  Quebec — John  Wesley 131 

Chapter  XII. 

George  III. — Stamp  Act — Tax  on  Tea — American 
Independence  Acknowledged — Impeachment 
of  Hastings— War  of  1813— First  English 
Railway — George  IV.— William  IV. — Reform 
Bill — Emancipation  of  the  Slaves 143 

Chapter  XIII. 

Victoria — Famine  in  Ireland — War  with  Russia — 
Sepoy  Rebellion— Massacre  at  Cawnpore 159 

Chapter  XIV. 

Atlantic  Cable  —  Daguerre's  Discovery  —  First 
World's  Fair— Death  of  Albert— Suez  Canal 
— Victoria  Empress  of  India — Disestablish- 
ment of  Irish  Branch  of  Church  of  England 
— Present  Conditions 169 


CONTENTS. 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND 

PAGE 

Pre-Christian  Ireland— From  Augustine  to  Eng- 
lish Conquest — From  Henry  II.  to  Elizabeth 
— From  Elizabeth  to  William  III.  and  Mary 
— From  William  III.  to  Act  of  Union — 
—From  Act  of  Union  to  death  of  Parnell— 
New  Land  Acts 199 

HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND 

Early  Celtic  Period — Period  from  Malcolm  III. 
to  Robert  Bruce — From  Bruce  to  James  I. — 
From  James  I.  to  Union  of  Crowns— From 
Union  of  Crowns  to  Treaty  of  Union  — 
Brief  Summary  of  Period  Since  the  Treaty 
of  Union 249 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Magna  Charta,  1215:  King  John  submits  to  the 
Barons,  and  signs  the  Great  Charter  of 
British  Liberties Frontispiece 


FACING 
PAGE 


Queen   Elizabeth  going  on  board    the   "  Golden 

Hind" 80 

Cromwell   dissolving  the  Long  Parliament,  1653     116 

Nelson's    Victory    at    the    Battle    of    Trafalgar, 

1805 144 

The  British  Squares  at  Quatrc-Bras,  1815    .        ,     150 

The  British  in  India:  A  native  prince  receiving 
the  decoration  of  the  order  of  the  Star  of 
India  from  Albert  Edward,  the  Prince  of 
Wales 170 


A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 


CHAPTER  I 

The  remotest  fact  in  the  history  of  Eng- 
land is  written  in  her  rocks.  Geology  tells 
us  of  a  time  when  no  sea  flowed  between 
Dover  and  Calais,  while  an  unbroken  conti- 
nent extended  from  the  Mediterranean  to 
the  Orkneys. 

Huge  mounds  of  rough  stones  called 
Cromlechs,  have  yielded  up  still  another 
secret.  Before  the  coming  of  the  Keltic- 
Aryans,  there  dwelt  there  two  successive 
races,  whose  story  is  briefly  told  in  a  few 
human  fragments  found  in  these  ''Crom- 
lechs." These  remains  do  not  bear  the 
royal  marks  of  Aryan  origin.  The  men 
were  small  in  stature,  with  inferior  skulls ; 
and  it  is  surmised  that  they  belonged  to  the 
same  mysterious  branch  of  the  human  fara- 


lO         A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

ily  as  the  Basques  and  Iberians,  whose  pres- 
ence in  Southern  Europe  has  never  been 
explained. 

When  the  Aryan  came  and  blotted  out 
these  races  will  perhaps  always  remain  an 
unanswered  queston.  But  while  Greece  was 
clothing  herself  with  a  mantle  of  beauty, 
which  the  world  for  two  thousand  years  hai 
striven  in  vain  to  imitate,  there  was  lying 
off  the  North  and  West  coasts  of  the  Euro- 
pean Continent  a  group  of  mist-enshrouded 
islands  of  which  she  had  never  heard. 

Obscured  by  fogs,  and  beyond  the  horizon 
of  Civilization,  a  branch  of  the  Aryan  race 
known  as  Britons  were  there  leading  lives 
as  primitive  as  the  American  Indians,  dwell- 
ing in  huts  shaped  like  beehives,  which 
they  covered  with  branches  and  plastered 
with  mud.  While  Phidias  was  carving  im- 
mortal statues  for  the  Parthenon,  this  early 
Britisher  was  decorating  his  abode  with  the 
heads  of  his  enemies ;  and  could  those  shape- 
less blocks  at  Stonehenge  speak,  they 
would,  perhaps,  tell  of  cruel  and  hideous 
Druidical  rites  witnessed  on  Salisbury 
Plain,  ages  ago. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  II 

Rumors  of  the  existence  of  this  people 
reached  the  Mediterranean  three  or  four 
hundred  years  before  Christ,  but  not  until 
Caesar's  invasion  of  the  Island  (55  B.C.) 
was  there  any  positive  knowledge  of  them. 

The  actual  conquest  of  Britain  was  not 
one  of  Caesar's  achievements.  But  from  the 
moment  when  his  covetous  eagle  -  eye 
viewed  the  chalk-cliffs  of  Dover  from  the 
coast  of  Northern  Gaul,  its  fate  was  sealed. 
The  Koman  octopus  from  that  moment  had 
fastened  its  tentacles  upon  the  hapless  land ; 
and  in  45  a.d.,  under  the  Emperor  Claudius, 
it  became  a  Roman  province.  In  vain  did  the 
Britons  struggle  for  forty  years.  In  vain 
did  the  heroic  Boadicea  (during  the  reign 
of  Nero,  61  a.d.),  like  Hermann  in  Germany, 
and  Vercingetorix  in  France,  resist  the  de- 
struction of  her  nation  by  the  Romans.  In 
vain  did  this  woman  herself  lead  the  Brit- 
ons, in  a  frenzy  of  patriotism;  and  when 
the  inevitable  defeat  came,  and  London  was 
lost,  with  the  desperate  courage  of  the  bar- 
barian she  destroyed  herself  rather  than 
witness  the  humiliation  of  her  race. 

The  stately  Westminster  and  St.   Paul's 


12         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

did  not  look  down  upon  this  heroic  daughter 
of  Britain.  London  at  that  time  was  a 
collection  of  miserable  huts  and  entrenched 
cattle-pens,  which  were  in  Keltic  speech 
called  the  "Fort-on-the-Lake" — or  "Llyn- 
din,"  an  uncouth  name  in  Latin  ears,  which 
gave  little  promise  of  the  future  London, 
the  Eomans  helping  it  to  its  final  form  by- 
calling  it  Londinium. 

But  the  octopus  had  firmly  closed  about 
its  victim,  whose  struggles,  before  the  year 
100  A.D.,  had  practically  ceased.  A  civili- 
zation which  made  no  effort  to  civilize  was 
forcibly  planted  upon  the  island.  Where 
had  been  the  humble  village,  protected  by 
a  ditch  and  felled  trees,  there  arose  the 
walled  city,  with  temples  and  baths  and 
forum,  and  stately  villas  with  frescoed 
walls  and  tessellated  floors,  and  hot-air 
currents  converting  winter  into  summer. 

So  Chester,  Colchester,  Lincoln,  York, 
London,  and  a  score  of  other  cities  were  set 
like  jewels  in  a  surface  of  rough  clay,  the 
Britons  filling  in  the  intervening  spaces 
with  their  own  rude  customs,  habits,  and 
manners.      Dwelling    in    wretched    cabins 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         13 

thatched  with  straw  and  chinked  with  mud, 
they  still  stubbornly  maintained  their  own 
uncouth  speech  and  nationality,  while  they 
helplessly  saw  all  they  could  earn  swallowed 
up  in  taxes  and  tributes  by  their  insatiate 
conquerors.  The  Keltic  -  Gauls  might,  if 
they  would,  assimilate  this  Roman  civiliza- 
tion, but  not  so  the  Keltic-Britons. 

The  two  races  dwelt  side  by  side,  but  sep- 
arate (except  to  some  extent  in  the  cities), 
or,  if  possible,  the  vanquished  retreated  be- 
fore the  vanquisher  into  Wales  and  Corn- 
wall ;  and  there  to-day  are  found  the  only 
remains  of  the  aboriginal  Briton  race  in 
England. 

The  Roman  General  Agricola  had  built  in 
T8  A.D.  a  massive  wall  across  the  North  of 
England,  extending  from  sea  to  sea,  to  pro- 
tect the  Roman  territory  from  the  Picts  and 
Scots,  those  wild  dwellers  in  the  Northern 
Highlands.  It  seems  to  us  a  frail  barrier 
to  a  people  accustomed  to  leaping  the  rocky 
wall  set  by  nature  between  the  North  and  the 
South;  and  unless  it  were  maintained  by  a 
line  of  legions  extending  its  entire  length, 
they  must  have  laughed  at  such  a  defence; 


14         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

even  when  duplicated  later,  as  it  was,  by 
the  Emperor  Hadrian,  in  120  a.d.  ;  and  still 
twice  again,  first  by  Emperor  Antoninus, 
and  then  by  Severus.  For  the  swift  trans- 
portation of  troops  in  the  defensive  warfare 
always  carried  on  with  the  Picts  and  Scots, 
magnificent  roads  were  built,  which  linked 
the  Eomanized  cities  together  in  a  network 
of  splendid  highways. 

There  were  more  than  three  centuries  of 
peace.  Agriculture,  commerce,  and  indus- 
tries came  into  existence.  "  Wealth  accumu- 
lated," but  the  Briton  "decayed"  beneath 
the  weight  of  a  splendid  system,  which  had 
not  benefited,  but  had  simply  crushed  out 
of  him  his  original  vigor.  Together  with 
Eoman  villas,  and  vice,  and  luxury,  had 
also  come  Christianity.  But  the  Briton,  if 
he  had  learned  to  pray,  had  forgotten  how 
to  fight, — and  how  to  govern;  and  now  the 
Koman  Empire  was  perishing.  She  needed 
all  her  legions  to  keep  Alaric  and  his  Goths 
out  of  Eome. 

In  410  A.D.  the  fair  cities  and  roads  were 
deserted.  The  tramp  of  Eoman  soldiers 
was  heard  no  more  in  the    land,  and  the 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  15 

enfeebled  native  race  were  left  helpless  and 
alone  to  fight  their  battles  with  the  Picts 
and  Scots; — that  fierce  Briton  offshoot 
which  had  for  centuries  dwelt  in  the  fast- 
nesses of  the  Highlands,  and  which  swarmed 
down  upon  them  like  vultures  as  soon  as 
their  protectors  were  gone. 

In  446  A.D.  the  unhappy  Britons  invited 
their  fate.  Like  their  cousins,  the  Gauls, 
they  invited  the  Teutons  from  across  the  sea 
to  come  to  their  rescue,  and  with  result 
far  more  disastrous. 

When  the  Frank  became  the  champion 
and  conqueror  of  Gaul,  he  had  for  centuries 
been  in  conflict  or  in  contact  with  Eome, 
and  had  learned  much  of  the  old  Southern 
civilizations,  and  to  some  extent  adopted 
their  ideals.  Not  so  the  Angles  and  Saxons, 
who  came  pouring  into  Britain  from  Schles- 
wig-Holstein.  They  were  uncontaminated 
pagans.  In  scorn  of  Eoman  luxury,  they 
set  the  torch  to  the  villas,  and  temples  and 
baths.  They  came,  exterminating,  not  as- 
similating. The  more  complaisant  Frank 
had  taken  Eomanized,  Latinized  Gaul  just 
as  he   found  her,    and    had  even  speedily 


l6         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

adopted  her  religion.      It  was  for  Gaul  a 
change  of  rulers,  but  not  of  civilization. 

But  the  Angles  and  Saxons  were  Teutons 
of  a  different  sort.  They  brought  across 
the  sea  in  those  "keels"  their  religion, 
their  manners,  habits,  nature,  and  speech; 
and  they  brought  them  for  use  (just  as  the 
Englishman  to-day  carries  with  him  a  little 
England  wherever  he  goes) .  Their  religion, 
habits,  and  manners  they  stamped  upon  the 
helpless  Britons.  In  spite  of  King  Arthur, 
and  his  knights,  and  his  sword  "Excalibur," 
they  swiftly  paganized  the  land  which  had 
been  for  three  centuries  Christianized ;  and 
their  nature  and  speech  were  so  ground 
into  the  land  of  their  adoption  that  they 
exist  to-day  wherever  the  Anglo  -  Saxon 
abides. 

From  Windsor  Palace  to  the  humblest 
abode  in  England  (and  in  America)  are  to 
be  found  the  descendants  of  these  dominat- 
ing barbarians  who  flooded  the  British  Isles 
in  the  5th  Century.  What  sort  of  a  race 
were  they?  Would  we  understand  England 
to-day,  we  must  understand  them.  It  is  not 
sufficient  to  know  that  they  were  bearded 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  17 

and  stalwart,  fair  and  ruddy,  flaxen-haired 
and  with  cold  blue  eyes.  We  should  know 
what  sort  of  souls  looked  out  of  those  clear 
cold  eyes.  What  sort  of  impulses  and 
hearts  dwelt  within  those  brawny  breasts. 

Their  hearts  were  barbarous,  but  loving 
and  loyal,  and  nature  had  placed  them  in 
strong,  vehement,  ravenous  bodies.  They 
were  untamed  brutes,  with  noble  instincts. 

They  had  ideals  too;  and  these  are  re- 
vealed in  the  rude  songs  and  epics  in  which 
they  delighted.  Monstrous  barbarities  are 
committed,  but  always  to  accomplish  some 
stern  purpose  of  duty.  They  are  cruel  in 
order  to  be  just.  This  sluggish,  ravenous, 
drinking  brute,  with  no  gleam  of  tenderness, 
no  light-hearted  rhythm  in  his  soul,  has  yet 
chaotic  glimpses  of  the  sublime  in  his  ear- 
nest, gloomy  nature.  He  gives  little  promise 
of  culture,  but  much  of  heroism.  There  is, 
too,  a  reaching  after  something  grand  and 
invisible,  which  is  a  deep  religious  instinct. 
All  these  qualities  had  the  future  English 
nation  slumbering  within  them.  Marriage 
was  sacred,  woman  honored.  All  the  mem- 
bers of  a  family  were  responsible  for  the 


l8  A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

acts  of  one  member.  The  sense  of  obliga- 
tion and  of  responsibility  was  strong  and 
binding. 

Is  not  every  type  of  English  manhood 
explained  by  such  an  inheritance?  From  the 
drunken  brawler  in  his  hovel  to  the  English 
gentleman  "taking  his  pleasures  sadly,"  all 
are  accounted  for;  and  Hampden,  Milton, 
Cromwell,  John  Bright,  and  Gladstone  ex- 
isted potentially  in  those  fighting,  drinking 
savages  in  the  5th  Century. 

Their  religion,  after  150  years,  was  ex- 
changed for  Christianity.  Time  softened 
their  manners  and  habits,  and  mingled  new 
elements  with  their  speech.  But  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  naturae  has  defied  the  centuries  and 
change.  A  strong  sense  of  justice,  and  a 
resolute  resistance  to  encroachments  ux)on 
personal  liberty,  are  the  warp  and  woof 
of  Anglo-Saxon  character  yesterday,  to-day 
and  forever.  The  steady  insistence  of  these 
traits  has  been  making  English  History  for 
precisely  1,400  years,  (from  495  to  1895,) 
and  the  history  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  in 
America  for  200  years  as  well. 

Our  ancestors  brought  with  them  from 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         19 

their  native  land  a  simple,  just,  Teutonic 
structure  of  society  and  government,  the 
base  of  which  was  the  individual  free-man. 
The  family  was  considered  the  social  unit. 
Several  families  near  together  made  a  town- 
ship, the  affairs  of  the  township  being  set- 
tled by  the  male  freeholders,  who  met 
together  to  determine  by  conference  what 
should  be  done. 

This  was  the  germ  of  the  "town-meet- 
ing" and  of  popular  government.  In  the 
"witan,"  or  "wise  men,  "who  were  chosen  as 
advisers  and  adjusters  of  difficult  questions, 
exist  the  future  legislature  and  judiciary, 
while  in  the  king,  or  "alder-mann" 
("  Ealdorman")  we  see  not  an  oppressor, 
but  one  who  by  superior  age  and  experience 
is  fitted  to  lead.  Cerdic,  first  Saxon  king, 
was  simply  Cerdic  the  "Ealdorman"  or 
"Alder-mann." 

They  were  a  free  people  from  the  begin- 
ning. They  had  never  bowed  the  neck  to 
yoke,  their  heads  had  never  bent  to  tyranny. 
Better  far  was  it  that  Roman  civilization, 
built  upon  Keltic-Briton  foundation,  should 
have    been   effaced   utterly,  and   that   this 


20         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

strong  untamed  humanity,  even  cruel  and 
terrible  as  it  was,  should  replace  it.  Roman 
laws,  language,  literature,  faith,  manners, 
were  all  swept  away.  A  few  mosaics,  coins, 
and  ruined  fragments  of  walls  and  roads  are 
all  the  record  that  remains  of  300  years  of 
occupation. 

And  the  Briton  himself — what  became  of 
him?  In  Ireland  and  Scotland  he  lingers 
still;  but,  except  in  Wales  and  Cornwall, 
England  knows  him  no  more.  Like  the 
American  Indian,  he  was  swept  into  the  re- 
mote, inaccessible  corners  of  his  own  land. 
It  seemed  cruel,  but  it  had  to  be.  Would 
we  build  strong  and  high,  it  must  not  be 
upon  sand.  We  distrust  the  Kelt  as  a 
foundation  for  nations  as  we  do  sand  for 
our  temples.  France  was  never  cohesive 
until  a  mixture  of  Teuton  had  toughened 
it.  Genius  makes  a  splendid  spire,  but  a 
poor  corner-stone.  It  would  seem  that  the 
Keltic  race,  brilliant  and  richly  endowed, 
was  still  unsuited  to  the  world  in  its  higher 
stages  of  development.  In  Britain,  Gaul, 
and  Spain  they  were  displaced  and  absorbed 
by  the  Germanic  races.     And  now  for  long 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         21 

centuries  no  Keltic  people  of  importance 
has  maintained  its  independence ;  the  Gaelic 
of  the  Scotch  Highlands  and  of  Ireland,  the 
native  dialect  of  the  Welsh  and  of  Brittany, 
being  the  scanty  remains  of  that  great  fam- 
ily of  related  tongues  which  once  occupied 
more  territory  than  German,  Latin,  and 
Greek  combined.  The  solution  of  the  Irish 
question  may  lie  in  the  fact  that  the  Irish 
are  fighting  against  the  inevitable;  that 
they  belong  to  a  race  which  is  on  its  way  to 
extinction,  and  which  is  intended  to  survive 
only  as  a  brilliant  thread,  wrought  into  the 
texture  of  more  commonplace  but  more  en- 
during peoples. 

It  was  written  in  the  book  of  fate  that  a 
great  nation  should  arise  upon  that  green 
island  by  the  North  Sea.  A  foundation  of 
Roman  cement,  made  by  a  mingling  of  Kel- 
tic-Briton, and  a  corrupt,  decayed  civiliza- 
tion, would  have  altered  not  alone  the  fate 
of  a  nation,  but  the  History  of  the  World. 
Our  barbarian  ancestors  brought  from 
Schleswig-Holstein  a  rough,  clean,  strong 
foundation  for  what  was  to  become  a  new 
type  of  humanity  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 


22  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

A  Humanity  which  was  not  to  be  Persian 
nor  Greek,  nor  yet  Eoman,  but  to  be  nour- 
ished on  the  best  results  of  all,  and  to  be- 
come the  standard-bearer  for  the  Civilization 
of  the  future. 

The  Jutes  came  first  as  an  advance-guard 
of  the  great  Teuton  invasion.  It  was  but 
the  prologue  to  the  play  when  Hengist  and 
Horsa,  in  449  a.d.,  occupied  what  is  nov/ 
Kent,  in  the  Southeast  extremity  of  Eng- 
land. It  was  only  when  Cerdic  and  his 
Saxons  placed  foot  on  British  soil  (495  a.d.) 
that  the  real  drama  began.  And  when  the 
Angles  shortly  afterward  followed  and  oc- 
cupied all  that  the  Saxons  had  not  appro- 
priated (the  north  and  east  coast),  the  actors 
were  all  present  and  the  play  began.  The 
Angles  were  destined  to  bestow  their  name 
upon  the  land  (Angle-land),  and  the  Saxons 
a  line  of  kings  extending  from  Cerdic  to 
Victoria. 

Covetous  of  each  other's  possessions,  these 
Teutons  fought  as  brothers  will.  Exter- 
minating the  Britons  was  diversified  with 
efforts  to  exterminate  one  another.  Seven 
kingdoms,  four  Anglian  and  three  Saxon, 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND.  23 

for  300  years  tried  to  annihilate  each  other; 
then,  finally  submitting  to  the  strongest, 
united  completely, — as  only  children  of  one 
household  of  nations  can  do.  The  Saxons 
had  been  for  two  centuries  dominating  more 
and  more  until  the  long  struggle  ended — 
behold,  Anglo-Saxon  England  consolidated 
under  one  Saxon  king!  The  other  king- 
doms— Northumbria,  Mercia,  East  Anglia, 
Kent,  Sussex,  and  Essex  —  surviving  as 
shires  and  counties. 

In  802  A.D.,  while  Charlemagne  was  weld- 
ing together  his  vast  and  composite  empire, 
the  Saxon  Egbert  (Ecgberht),  descendant  of 
Cerdic  (the  "  Alder-mann"),  was  consolidat- 
ing a  less  imposing,  but,  as  it  has  proved, 
more  permanent  kingdom ;  and  the  History 
of  a  United  England  had  begun. 

While  Christianity  had  been  effaced  by 
the  Teuton  invasion  in  England,  it  had  sur- 
vived among  the  Irish-Britons.  Ireland  was 
never  paganized.  With  fiery  zeal,  her  peo- 
ple not  alone  maintained  the  religion  of  the 
Cross  at  home,  but  even  drove  back  the 
heathen  flood  by  sending  missionaries 
among  the  Picts  in  the  Highlands,  and  into 


24         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

other  outlying  territory  about   the  North 
Sea. 

Pope  Gregory  the  Great  saw  this  Keltic 
branch  of  Christendom,  actually  outrunning 
Latin  Christianity  in  activity,  and  he  was 
spurred  to  an  act  which  was  to  be  fraught 
with  tremendous  consequences. 


CHAPTER    n 

The  same  spot  in  Kent  (the  isle  of 
Thanet),  which  had  witnessed  the  landing 
of  Hengist  and  Horsa  in  449,  saw  in  597 
a  band  of  men,  calling  themselves  "Stran- 
gers from  Rome,"  arriving  under  the  lead- 
ership of  Augustine. 

They  moved  in  solemn  procession  toward 
Canterbury,  bearing  before  them  a  silver 
cross,  with  a  picture  of  Christ,  chanting  in 
concert,  as  they  went,  the  litany  of  their 
Church.  Christianity  had  entered  by  the 
same  door  through  which  paganism  had 
come  150  years  before. 

The  religion  of  Wodin  and  Thor  had 
ceased  to  satisfy  the  expanding  soul  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon;  and  the  new  faith  rapidly 
spread ;  its  charm  consisting  in  the  light  it 
seemed  to  throw  upon  the  darkness  encom- 
passing man's  past  and  future. 


26         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

An  aged  chief  said  to  Edwin,  king  of  Nor- 
thnmbria,  (after  whom  "Edwins-borough" 
was  named,)  "Oh,  King,  as  a  bird  flies 
through  this  hall  on  a  winter  night,  coming 
out  of  the  darkness,  and  vanishing  into  the 
darkness  again,  even  so  is  our  life!  If 
these  strangers  can  tell  us  aught  of  what 
is  beyond,  let  us  hear  them." 

King  Edv/in  was  among  the  first  to  espouse 
the  new  religion,  and  in  less  than  one  hun- 
dred years  the  entire  land  was  Christianized. 

With  the  adoption  of  Christianity  a  new 
life  began  to  course  in  the  veins  of  the 
people. 

Csedmon,  an  unlettered  Northumbrian 
peasant,  was  inspired  by  an  Angel  who 
came  to  him  in  his  sleep  and  told  him  to 
"Sing."  "He  was  not  disobedient  unto  the 
heavenly  vision."  He  wrote  epics  upon  all 
the  sacred  themes,  from  the  creation  of  the 
World  to  the  Ascension  of  Christ  and  the 
final  judgment  of  man,  and  English  litera- 
ture was  born. 

"  Paradise  Lost,"  one  thousand  years  later, 
was  but  the  echo  of  this  poet-peasant,  who 
was  the  Milton  of  the  7th  Century. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         27 

In  the  8th  Century,  Bseda  (the  venerable 
Beda),  another  Northumbrian,  who  was 
monk,  scholar,  and  writer,  wrote  the  first 
History  of  his  people  and  his  country,  and 
discoursed  upon  astronomy,  physics,  me- 
teorology, medicine,  and  philosophy.  These 
were  but  the  early  lispings  of  Science;  but 
they  held  the  germs  of  the  "British  Associa- 
tion" and  of  the  "Eoyal  Society;"  for  as 
English  poetry  has  its  roots  in  Csedmon,  so 
is  English  intellectual  life  rooted  in  Bseda. 

The  culmination  of  this  new  era  was  in 
Alfred,  who  came  to  the  throne  of  his 
grandfather,  Egbert,  in  871. 

He  brought  the  highest  ideals  of  the 
duties  of  a  King,  a  broad,  statesmanlike 
grasp  of  conditions,  an  unsullied  heart,  and 
a  clear,  strong  intelligence,  with  unusual 
inclination  toward  an  intellectual  life. 

Few  Kings  have  better  deserved  the  title 
of  "great."  With  him  began  the  first  con- 
ception of  National  law.  He  prepared  a 
code  for  the  administration  of  justice  in  his 
Kingdom,  which  was  prefaced  by  the  Ten 
Commandments,  and  ended  with  the  Golden 
Rule ;  while  in  his  leisure  hours  he  gave  co- 


28  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

herence  and  form  to  the  literature  of  the 
time.  Taking  the  writings  of  Csedraon, 
Baeda,  Pope  Gregory,  and  Boethius;  trans- 
lating, editing,  commentating,  and  adding 
his  own  to  the  views  of  others  upon  a  wide 
range  of  subjects. 

He  was  indeed  the  father  not  alone  of  a 
legal  system  in  England,  but  of  her  culture 
and  literature  besides.  The  people  of  Wan- 
tage, his  native  town,  did  well,  in  1849,  to 
celebrate  the  one-thousandth  anniversary  of 
the  birth  of  the  great  King  Alfred. 

But  a  condition  of  decadence  was  in  prog- 
ress in  England,  which  Alfred's  wise  reign 
was  powerless  to  arrest,  and  which  his 
greatness  may  even  have  tended  to  hasten. 
The  distance  between  the  king  and  the  peo- 
ple had  widened  from  a  mere  step  to  a 
gulf.  When  the  Saxon  kings  began  to  be 
clothed  with  a  mysterious  dignity  as  "the 
Lord's  anointed,"  the  people  were  corres- 
pondingly degraded;  and  the  degradation 
of  this  class,  in  which  the  true  strength 
of  England  consisted,  bore  unhappy  but 
natural  fruits. 

A  slave  or  "unfree"  class  had  come  with 


A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  29 

the  Teutons  from  their  native  land.  This 
small  element  had  for  centuries  now  been 
swelled  by  captives  taken  in  war,  and  by- 
accessions  through  misery,  poverty,  and 
debt,  which  drove  men  to  sell  themselves 
and  families  and  wear  the  collar  of  ser- 
vitude. The  slave  was  not  under  the  lash ; 
but  he  was  a  mere  chattel,  having  no  more 
part  than  cattle  (from  whom  this  title  is  de- 
rived) in  the  real  life  of  the  state. 

In  addition  to  this,  political  and  social 
changes  had  been  long  modifying  the  struc- 
ture of  society  in  a  way  tending  to  degrade 
the  general  condition.  As  the  lesser  King- 
doms were  merged  into  one  large  one,  the 
wider  dominion  of  the  king  removed  him 
further  from  the  people;  every  succeeding 
reign  raising  him  higher,  depressing  them 
lower,  until  the  old  English  freedom  was  lost. 

The  "folk -moot"  and  "  Witenagemot"* 
were  heard  of  no  more.  The  life  of  the 
early  English  State  had  been  in  its  "folk- 
moot,  "and  hence  rested  upon  the  individual 
English  freeman,  who  knew  no  superior  but 

*  Witenagemot— a  Council  composed  of  "  Witan"  or 
"Wise  Men." 


.  30         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

I 

God,  and  the  law.  Now,  he  had  sunk  into 
the  mere  "villein,"  bound  to  follow  his  lord 
to  the  field,  to  give  him  his  personal  ser- 
vice, and  to  look  to  him  alone  for  justice. 
With  the  decline  of  the  freeman  (or  of 
popular  government)  came  Anglo  -  Saxon 
degeneracy,  which  made  him  an  easy  prey 
to  the  Danes. 

The  Northmen  were  a  perpetual  menace 
and  scourge  to  England  and  Scotland. 
There  never  could  be  any  feeling  of  perma- 
nent security  while  that  hostile  flood  was 
always  ready  to  press  in  through  an  un- 
guarded spot  on  the  coast.  The  sea  wolves 
and  robbers  from  Norway  came  devouring, 
pillaging,  and  ravaging,  and  then  away 
again  to  their  own  homes  or  lairs.  Their 
boast  was  that  they  "scorned  to  earn  by 
sweat  what  they  might  win  by  blood."  But 
the  Northmen  from  Denmark  were  of  a 
different  sort.  They  were  looking  for 
permanent  conquest,  and  had  dreams  of 
Empire,  and,  in  fact,  had  had  more  or 
less  of  a  grasp  upon  English  soil  for 
centuries  before  Alfred;  and  one  of  his 
greatest    achievements    was   driving  these 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         31 

hated  invaders  out  of  England.  In  1013, 
under  the  leadership  of  Sweyn,  they  once 
more  poured  in  upon  the  land,  and  after  a 
brief  but  fierce  struggle  a  degenerate  Eng- 
land was  gathered  into  the  iron  hand  of  the 
Dane. 

Canute,  the  son  of  Sweyn,  continued  the 
successes  of  his  father,  conquering  in  Scot- 
land Duncan  (slain  later  by  Macbeth),  and 
proceeded  to  realize  his  dream  of  a  great 
Scandinavian  empire,  which  should  incbade 
Denmark,  Sweden,  Norvva}^  and  England. 
He  was  one  of  those  monumental  men  who 
mark  the  periods  in  the  pages  of  History, 
and  yet  child  enough  to  command  the  tides 
to  cease,  and  when  disobeyed,  was  so  hu- 
miliated, it  is  said,  he  never  again  placed  a 
crown  upon  his  head,  acknowledging  the 
presence  of  a  King  greater  than  himself. 

Conqueror  though  he  was,  the  Dane  was 
not  exactly  a  foreigner  in  England.  The 
languages  of  the  two  nations  were  almost 
the  same,  and  a  race  affinity  took  away 
much  of  the  bitterness  of  the  subjugation, 
while  Canute  ruled  more  as  a  wise  native 
King  than  as  a  Conqueror. 


32  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

But  the  span  of  life,  even  of  a  founder  of 
Empire,  is  short.  Canute's  sons  were  de- 
generate, cruel,  and  in  forty  years  after  the 
Conquest  had  so  exasperated  the  Anglo-Sax- 
ons that  enough  of  the  primitive  spirit  re- 
turned, to  throw  off  the  foreign  yoke,  and 
the  old  Saxon  line  was  restored  in  Edward, 
known  as  "the  Confessor." 

Edward  had  qualities  more  fitted  to 
adorn  the  cloister  than  the  throne.  He 
was  more  of  a  Saint  than  King,  and  was 
glad  to  leave  the  affairs  of  his  realm  in  the 
hands  of  Earl  Godwin.  This  man  was  the 
first  great  English  statesman  who  had  been 
neither  Priest  nor  King.  Astute,  powerful, 
dexterous,  he  was  virtual  ruler  of  the  King- 
dom until  the  death  of  the  childless  King 
Edward  in  1066,  when  Godwin's  son  Harold 
was  called  to  the  empty  throne. 

Foreign  royal  alliances  have  caused  no 
end  of  trouble  in  the  life  of  Kingdoms.  A 
marriage  between  a  Saxon  King  and  a  Nor- 
man Princess,  in  about  the  year  1000  A.D., 
has  made  a  vast  deal  of  history.  This  Prin- 
cess of  Normandy,  was  the  grandmother  of 
the  man,  who  was  to  be  known  as  "  William 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         33 

the  Conqueror."  In  the  absence  of  a  di- 
rect heir  to  the  English  throne,  made  vacant 
by  Edward's  death,  this  descent  gave  a  shad- 
owy claim  to  the  ambitious  Duke  across  the 
Channel,  which  he  was  not  slow  to  use  for 
his  own  purjDOses. 

He  asserted  that  Edward  had  promised 
that  he  should  succeed  him,  and  that  Har- 
old, the  son  of  Godwin,  had  assured  him  of 
his  assistance  in  securing  his  rights  upon 
the  death  of  Edward  the  Confessor.  A  tre- 
mendous indignation  stirred  his  righteous 
soul  when  he  heard  of  the  crowning  of 
Harold ;  not  so  much  at  the  loss  of  the 
throne,  as  at  the  treachery  of  his  friend. 

In  the  face  of  tremendous  opposition  and 
difficulties,  he  got  together  his  reluctant 
Barons  and  a  motley  host,  actually  cutting 
down  the  trees  with  which  to  create  a  fleet, 
and  then,  depending  upon  pillage  for  sub- 
sistence, rushed  to  face  victory  or  ruin. 

The  Battle  of  Senlac  (or  Hastings)  has 
been  best  told  by  a  woman's  hand  in  the 
famous  Bayeux  Tapestry.  An  arrow  pierced 
the  unhappy  Harold  in  the  eye,  entering  the 
brain,   and  the  head  which  had  worn  the 


34         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

crown  of  England  ten  short  months  lay  in 
the  dust,  William,  with  wrath  unappeased, 
refusing  him  burial. 

William,  Duke  of  Normandy,  was  King 
of  England.  Not  alone  that.  He  claimed 
that  he  had  been  rightful  King  ever  since 
the  death  of  his  cousin  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor; and  that  those  who  had  supported 
Harold  were  traitors,  and  their  lands  confis- 
cated to  the  crown.  As  nearly  all  had  been 
loyal  to  Harold,  the  result  was  that  most 
of  the  wealth  of  the  Nation  was  emptied  into 
William's  lap,  not  by  right  of  conquest,  but 
by  English  law. 

Feudalism  had  been  gradually  stifling  old 
English  freedom,  and  the  King  saw  himself 
confronted  with  a  feudal  baronage,  nobles 
claiming  hereditary,  military,  and  judicial 
power  independent  of  the  King,  such  as  de- 
graded the  Monarchy  and  riveted  down  the 
people  in  France  for  centuries.  With  the 
genius  of  the  born  ruler  and  conqueror, 
William  discerned  the  danger  and  its 
remedy.  Availing  himself  of  the  early 
legal  constitution  of  England,  he  placed 
justice   in    the    old     local    courts    of    the 


A   SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         35 

"hundred"  and  "shire,"  to  which  every  free- 
man had  access,  and  these  courts  he  placed 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  King  alone.  In 
Germany  and  France  the  vassal  owned  su- 
preme fealty  to  his  lord,  against  all  foes,  even 
the  King  himself.  In  England,  the  tenant 
from  this  time  sworo  direct  fealty  to  none 
save  his  King. 

With  the  unbounded  wealth  at  his  dis- 
posal, William  granted  enormous  estates  to 
his  followers  upon  condition  of  military  ser- 
vice at  his  call.  In  other  words,  he  seized 
the  entire  landed  property  of  the  State,  and 
then  used  it  to  buy  the  allegiance  of  the 
people.  By  this  means  the  whole  Nation 
was  at  his  command  as  an  army  subject  to 
his  will ;  and  there  was  at  the  same  time  a 
breaking  up  of  old  feudal  tyrannies  by  a 
redistribution  of  the  soil  under  a  new  form 
of  land  tenure. 

The  City  of  London  was  rewarded  for  in- 
stant submission  by  a  Charter,  signed, — not 
by  his  name — but  his  mark,  for  the  Con- 
queror of  England  (from  whom  Victoria  is 
twenty-fifth  remove  in  descent),  could  not 
write  his  name. 


36  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

He  built  the  Tower  of  London,  to  hold  the 
City  in  restraint.  Fortress,  palace,  prison, 
it  stands  to-day  the  grim  progenitor  of  the 
Castles  and  Strongholds  which  soon  frowned 
from  every  height  in  England. 

He  took  the  outlawed,  despised  Jew  under 
his  protection  ;  not  as  a  philanthropist,  but 
seeing  in  him  a  being  who  was  always 
accumulating  wealth,  which  could  in  any 
emergency  be  wrung  from  him  by  torture, 
if  milder  measures  failed.  Their  hoarded 
treasure  flowed  into  the  land.  They  built 
the  first  stone  houses,  and  domestic  archi- 
tecture was  created.  Jewish  gold  built  Cas- 
tles and  Cathedrals,  and  awoke  the  slumber- 
ing sense  of  beauty.  Through  their  connec- 
tion with  the  Jews  in  Spain  and  the  East, 
knowledge  of  the  physical  sciences  also 
streamed  into  the  land,  and  an  intellectual 
life  was  created,  which  bore  fruit  a  century 
and  a  half  later  in  Eoger  Bacon. 

All  these  things  were  not  done  in  a  day. 
It  was  twenty  years  after  the  Conquest  that 
William  ordered  a  survey  and  valuation  of 
all  the  land,  v/hich  was  recorded  in  what 
was  known  as  ''Domesday  Book,"  that  he 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         37 

might  know  the  precise  financial  resources 
of  his  kingdom,  and  what  was  due  him  on 
the  confiscated  estates.  Then  he  summoned 
all  the  nobles  and  large  landholders  to  meet 
him  at  Salisbury  Plain,  and  those  shapeless 
blocks  at  "  Stonehenge"  witnessed  a  strange 
scene  when  GO,  000  men  there  took  solemn 
oath  to  support  William  as  King  even 
against  their  oivn  lords.  With  this  splen- 
did consummation  his  work  was  practically 
finished.  He  had,  with  supreme  dexterity 
and  wisdom,  blended  two  Civilizations,  had 
at  the  right  moment  curbed  the  destructive 
element  in  feudalism,  and  had  secured  to 
the  Englishman  free  access  to  the  surface 
for  all  time.  Thus  the  old  English  freedom 
was  in  fact  restored  by  the  Norman  Con- 
quest, by  direct  act  of  the  Conqueror. 

William  typified  in  his  person  a  transi- 
tional time,  the  old  Norse  world,  mingling 
strangely  in  him  with  the  new.  He  was 
the  last  outcome  of  his  race.  Norse  daring 
and  cruelty  were  side  by  side  with  gentle- 
ness and  aspiration.  No  human  pity  tem- 
pered his  vengeance.  When  hides  were 
hung  on  the  City  Walls  at  Alengon,  in  insult 


38         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

to  his  mother  (the  daughter  of  a  tanner),  he 
tore  out  the  eyes,  cut  off  the  hands  and  feet 
of  the  prisoners,  and  threw  them  over  the 
walls.  When  he  did  this,  and  when  he 
refused  Harold's  body  a  grave,  it  was  the 
spirit  of  the  sea- wolves  within  him.  But  it 
was  the  man  of  the  coming  Civilization,  who 
could  not  endure  death  by  process  of  law  in 
his  Kingdom,  and  who  delighted  to  discourse 
with  the  gentle  and  pious  Anselm,  upon  the 
mysteries  of  life  and  death. 

The  indirect  benefits  of  the  Conquest, 
came  in  enriching  streams  from  the  older 
civilizations.  As  Eome  had  been  heir  to 
the  accumulations  of  experience  in  the  an- 
cient Nations,  so  England,  through  France 
became  the  heir  to  Latin  institutions,  and 
was  joined  to  the  great  continuous  stream 
of  the  World's  highest  development.  Fresh 
intellectual  stimulus  renovated  the  Church. 
Eoman  law  was  planted  upon  the  simple 
Teuton  system  of  rights.  Every  depart- 
ment in  State  and  in  Society  shared  the  ad- 
vance, while  language  became  refined,  flex- 
ible, and  enriched. 

This  engrafting  with  the  results  of  an- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         39 

tiquit)-,  was  an  enormous  saving  of  time,  in 
the  development  of  a  nation;  but  it  did  not 
change  the  essential  character  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  nor  of  his  speech.  The  ravenous 
Teuton  could  devour  and  assimilate  all  these 
new  elements  and  remain  essentially  un- 
changed. The  language  of  Bunyan  and  of  the 
Bible  is  Saxon ;  and  it  is  the  language  of  the 
Englishman  to-day  in  childhood  and  in  ex- 
tremity. A  man  who  is  thoroughly  in 
earnest — who  is  drowning — speaks  Saxon. 
Character,  as  much  as  speech,  remains  un- 
altered. There  is  small  trace  of  the  Nor- 
man in  the  House  of  Commons,  or  in  the 
meetings  at  Exeter  Hall,  or  in  the  home,  or 
life  of  the  people  anywhere. 

The  qualities  which  have  made  England 
great  were  brought  across  the  North  Sea  in 
those  "keels"  in  thp  5th  Century.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  put  on  the  new  civilization  and 
institutions  brought  him  by  the  Conquest,  as 
he  would  an  embroidered  garment ;  but  the 
man  within  the  garment,  though  modified  by 
civilization,  has  never  essentially  changed. 


CHAPTER    III 

It  is  not  in  the  exploits  of  its  Kings  but 
in  the  aspirations  and  struggles  of  its  people, 
that  the  true  history  of  a  nation  is  to  be 
sought.  During  the  rule  and  misrule  of  the 
two  sons,  and  grandson,  of  the  Conqueror, 
England  was  steadily  growing  toward  its 
ultimate  form. 

As  Society  outgrew  the  simple  ties  of 
blood  which  bound  it  together  in  old  Saxon 
England,  the  people  had  sought  a  larger 
protection  in  combinations  among  fellow 
freemen,  based  upon  identity  of  occupation. 

The  "Frith-Gilds,"  or  peace  Clubs,  came 
into  existence  in  Europe  during  the  9th  and 
10th  Centuries.  They  were  harshly  repressed 
in  Germany  and  Gaul,  but  found  kindly 
welcome  from  Alfred  in  England.  In  their 
mutual  responsibility,  in  their  motto,  "if  any 
misdo,  let  all  bear  it,"  Alfred  saw  simply 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  41 

an  enlarged  conception  of  the  ^' family, ^^ 
which  was  the  basis  of  the  Saxon  social 
structure ;  and  the  adoption  of  this  idea  of  a 
larger  unity,  in  combination,  was  one  of  the 
first  phases  of  an  expanding  national  life. 
So,  after  the  conquest,  while  ambitious 
kings  were  absorbing  French  and  Irish  ter- 
ritory or  fighting  with  recalcitrant  barons, 
the  merchant,  craft,  and  church  "gilds^^ 
were  creating  a  great  popular  force,  which 
was  to  accomplish  more  enduring  conquests. 

It  was  in  the  "boroughs"  and  in  these 
"gilds"  that  the  true  life  of  the  nation  con- 
sisted. It  was  the  shopkeepers  and  ar- 
tisans which  brought  the  right  of  free 
speech,  and  free  meeting,  and  of  equal  jus- 
tice across  the  ages  of  tyranny.  One  free- 
dom after  another  was  being  won,  and  the 
battle  with  oppression  was  being  fought,  not 
by  Knights  and  Barons,  but  by  the  sturdy 
burghers  and  craftsmen.  Silently  as  the 
coral  insect,  the  Anglo-Saxon  was  building 
an  indestructible  foundation  for  English 
liberties. 

The  Conqueror  had  bequeathed  England 
to  his  second  son,  William  Rufus,  and  Nor- 


42  A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

mandy  to  his  eldest  son,  Eobert.  In  1095 
(eight  years  after  his  death)  commenced 
those  extraordinary  wars  carried  on  by  the 
chivalry  of  Europe  against  the  Saracens  in 
the  East.  Robert,  in  order  to  raise  money 
to  join  the  first  crusade,  mortgaged  Nor- 
mandy to  his  brother,  and  an  absorption  of 
Western  France  had  begun,  which,  by  means 
of  conquest  by  arms  and  the  more  peaceful 
conquest  by  marriage,  would  in  fifty  years 
extend  English  dominion  from  the  Scottish 
border  to  the  Pyrenees. 

William's  son  Henry  (I.),  who  succeeded 
his  older  brother,  William  Eufus,  inherited 
enough  of  his  father's  administrative  genius 
to  complete  the  details  of  government  which 
he  had  outlined.  He  organized  the  begin- 
ning of  a  judicial  system,  creating  out  of  his 
secretaries  and  Royal  Ministers  a  Supreme 
Court,  whose  head  bore  the  title  of  Chancel- 
lor. He  created  also  another  tribunal,  which 
represented  the  body  of  royal  vassals  who 
had  all  hitherto  been  summoned  together 
three  times  a  year.  This  "King's  Court," 
as  it  was  called,  considered  everything  re- 
lating to  the  revenues    of  the  state.     Its 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         43 

meetings  were  about  a  table  with  a  top  like 
a  chessboard,  which  led  to  calling  the  mem- 
bers who  sat,  "Barons  of  the  Exchequer." 
He  also  wisely  created  a  class  of  lesser 
nobles,  upon  whom  the  old  barons  looked 
down  with  scorn,  but  who  served  as  a  coun- 
terbalancing force  against  the  arrogance  of 
an  old  nobility,  and  bridged  the  distance 
between  them  and  the  people. 

So,  while  the  thirty-five  years  of  Henry's 
reign  advanced  and  developed  the  purposes 
of  his  father,  his  marriage  with  a  Saxon 
Princess  did  much  to  efface  the  memory  of 
foreign  conquest,  in  restoring  the  old  Saxon 
blood  to  the  royal  line.  But  the  young 
Prince  who  embodied  this  hope,  went  down 
with  140  young  nobles  in  the  "White  Ship," 
while  returning  from  Normandy.  It  is  said 
that  his  father  never  smiled  again,  and 
upon  his  death,  his  nephew  Stephen  was 
king  during  twenty  unfruitful  years. 

But  the  succession  returned  through  Ma- 
tilda, daughter  of  Henry  I.  and  the  Saxon 
princess.  She  married  Geoffrey,  Count  of 
Anjou.  This  Geoffrey,  called  "the  hand- 
some," always  wore  in  his  helmet  a  sprig  of 


44         A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

the  broom-plant  of  Anjou  {Planta  genista)^ 
hence  their  son,  Henry  II.  of  England,  was 
known  as  Henry  Plante-d-genet. 

This  first  Plantagenet  was  a  strong,  coarse- 
fibred  man;  a  practical  reformer,  without 
sentiment,  but  really  having  good  govern- 
ment profoundly  at  heart. 

He  took  the  reins  into  his  great,  rough 
hands  with  a  determination  first  of  all  to 
curb  the  growing  power  of  the  clergy,  by 
bringing  it  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
civil  courts.  To  this  end  he  created  his 
friend  and  chancellor,  Thomas  a  Becket,  a 
primate  of  the  Church  to  aid  the  accomplish- 
ment of  his  purpose.  But  from  the  moment 
Becket  became  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  he 
was  transformed  into  the  defender  of  the 
organization  he  was  intended  to  subdue. 
Henry  was  furious  when  he  found  himself 
resisted  and  confronted  by  the  very  man  he 
had  created  as  an  instrument  of  his  will. 
These  were  years  of  conflict.  At  last,  in  a 
moment  of  exasperation,  the  king  exclaimed, 
"  Is  there  none  brave  enough  to  rid  me  of 
this  low-born  priest!"  This  was  construed 
into  a  command.    Four  knights  sped  swiftly 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         45 

to  Canterbury  Cathedral,  and  murdered  the 
Archbishop  at  the  altar.  Henry  was  stricken 
with  remorse,  and  caused  himself  to  be  beaten 
with  rods  like  the  vilest  criminal,  kneeling 
upon  the  spot  stained  with  the  blood  of  his 
friend.  It  was  a  brutal  murder,  which  caused 
a  thrill  of  horror  throughout  Christendom. 
Becket  was  canonized;  miracles  were  per- 
formed at  his  tomb,  and  for  hundreds  of 
years  a  stream  of  bruised  humanity  flowed 
into  Canterbury,  seeking  surcease  of  sorrow, 
and  cure  for  sickness  and  disease,  by  contact 
with  the  bones  of  the  murdered  saint. 

But  Henry  had  accomplished  his  end. 
The  clergy  was  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  King's  Court  during  his  reign.  He  also 
continued  the  judicial  reorganization  com- 
menced by  Henry  I.  He  divided  the  king- 
dom into  judicial  districts.  This  completely 
effaced  the  legal  jurisdiction  of  the  nobles. 
The  Circuits  thus  defined  correspond  roughly 
with  those  existing  to-day;  and  from  the 
Court  of  Appeals,  which  was  also  his  crea- 
tion, came  into  existence  tribunal  after  tri- 
bunal in  the  future,  including  the  "Star 
Chamber"  and  "Privy  Council." 


46         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

But  of  all  the  blows  aimed  at  the  barons 
none  told  more  effectually  than  the  restora- 
tion of  a  national  militia,  which  freed  the 
crown  from  dependence  upon  feudal  retain- 
ers for  military  service. 

In  a  fierce  quarrel  between  two  Irish  chief- 
tains, Henry  was  called  upon  to  interfere; 
and  when  the  quarrel  was  adjusted,  Ireland 
found  herself  annexed  to  the  English  crown, 
and  ruled  by  a  viceroy  appointed  by  the 
king.  The  drama  of  the  Saxons  defending 
the  Britons  from  the  Picts  and  Scots,  was 
repeated. 

This  first  Plantagenet,  with  fiery  face, 
bull-neck,  bowed  legs,  keen,  rough,  obsti- 
nate, passionate,  left  England  greater  and 
freer,  and  yet  with  more  of  a  personal  des- 
potism than  he  had  found  her.  The  trouble 
with  such  triumphs  is  that  they  presuppose 
the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  succeeding 
tyrants. 

Henry's  heart  broke  when  he  learned  that 
his  favorite  son,  John,  was  conspiring  against 
him.  He  turned  his  face  to  the  wall  and 
died  (1189),  the  practical  hard-headed  old 
king    leaving    his    throne    to    a  romantic 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         47 

dreamer,  who  could  not  even  speak  the  lan- 
guage of  his  country. 

Eichard  (Coeur  de  Lion)  was  a  hero  of  ro- 
mance, but  not  of  history.  The  practical 
concerns  of  his  kingdom  had  no  charm  for 
him.  His  eye  was  fixed  upon  Jerusalem, 
not  England,  and  he  spent  almost  the  entire 
ten  years  of  his  reign  in  the  Holy  Land. 

The  Crusades,  had  fired  the  old  spirit  of 
Norse  adventure  left  by  the  Danes,  and 
England  shared  the  general  madness  of  the 
time.  As  a  result  for  the  treasure  spent 
and  blood  spilled  in  Palestine,  she  received 
a  few  architectural  devices  and  the  science  of 
Heraldry.  But  to  Europe,  the  benefits  were 
incalculable.  The  barons  were  impover- 
ished, their  great  estates  mortgaged  to  thrifty 
burghers,  who  extorted  from  their  poverty 
charters  of  freedom,  which  unlocked  the 
fetters  and  broke  the  spell  of  the  dark  ages. 

Eichard  the  Lion-Hearted  died  as  he  had 
lived,  not  as  a  king,  but  as  a  romantic  ad- 
venturer. He  was  shot  by  an  arrow  while 
trying  to  secure  fabulous  hidden  treasure  in 
France,  with  which  to  continue  his  wars  in 
Palestine. 


48         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

His  brother  John,  in  1199,  ascended  the 
throne.  His  name  has  come  down  as  a 
type  of  baseness,  cruelty,  and  treachery. 
His  brother  Geoffrey  had  married  Constance 
of  Brittany,  and  their  son  Arthur,  named 
after  the  Keltic  hero,  had  been  urged  as  a 
rival  claimant  for  the  English  throne. 
Shakespeare  has  not  exaggerated  the  cruel 
fate  of  this  boy,  whose  monstrous  uncle 
really  purposed  having  his  eyes  burnt  out, 
being  sure  that  if  he  were  blind  he  would 
no  longer  be  eligible  for  king.  But  death 
is  surer  even  than  blindness,  and  Hubert,  his 
merciful  protector  from  one  fate,  was  power- 
less to  avert  the  other.  Some  one  was  found 
with  "heart  as  hard  as  hammered  iron," 
who  put  an  end  to  the  young  life  (1203) 
at  the  Castle  of  Eouen. 

But  the  King  of  England,  was  vassal  to  the 
King  of  France,  and  Philip  summoned  John 
to  account  to  him  for  this  deed.  When 
John  refused  to  appear,  the  French  provinces 
were  torn  from  him.  In  1204  he  saw  an  Em- 
pire stretching  from  the  English  Channel  to 
the  Pyrenees  vanish  from  his  grasp,  and  was 
at  one  blow  reduced  to  the  realm  of  England. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         49 

When  we  see  on  the  map,  England  as  she 
was  in  that  day,  sprawling  in  unwieldy 
fashion  over  the  western  half  of  France,  we 
realize  how  much  stronger  she  has  been  on 
"that  snug  little  island,  that  right  little, 
tight  little  island,"  and  we  can  see  that 
John's  wickedness  helped  her  to  be  invin- 
cible. 

The  destinies  of  England  in  fact  rested 
with  her  worst  king.  His  tyranny,  brutal- 
ity, and  disregard  of  his  subjects'  rights,  in- 
duced a  crisis  which  laid  the  corner-stone  of 
England's  future,  and  buttressed  her  liber- 
ties for  all  time. 

At  a  similar  crisis  in  France,  two  centu- 
ries later,  the  king  (Charles  VII.)  made  com- 
mon cause  with  the  people  against  the  barons 
or  dukes.  In  England,  in  the  13th  Century, 
the  barons  and  people  were  drawn  together 
against  the  King.  They  framed  a  Charter, 
its  provisions  securing  protection  and  justice 
to  every  freeman  in  England.  On  Easter 
Day,  1215,  the  barons,  attended  by  two 
thousand  armed  knights,  met  the  King  near 
Oxford,  and  demanded  his  signature  to  the 
paper.      John  was  awed,  and  asked  them  to 


50  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

name  a  day  and  place.  "Let  the  day  be  the 
15th  of  June,  and  the  place  Eunnymede," 
was  the  reply. 

A  brown,  shrivelled  piece  of  parchment  in 
the  British  Museum  to-day,  attests  to  the 
keeping  of  this  appointment.  That  old  Oak 
at  Eunnymede,  under  whose  spreading 
branches  the  name  of  John  was  affixed  to 
the  Magna  Charta,  was  for  centuries  held 
the  most  sacred  spot  in  England. 

It  is  an  impressive  picture  we  get  of 
John,  "the  Lord's  Anointed,"  when  this 
scene  was  over,  in  a  burst  of  rage  rolling  on 
the  floor,  biting  straw,  and  gnawing  a  stick  1 
"They  have  placed  twenty-five  kings  over 
me,"  he  shouted  in  a  fury;  meaning  the 
twenty-five  barons  who  were  entrusted  with 
the  duty  of  seeing  that  the  provisions  of  the 
Charter  were  fulfilled. 

Whether  his  death,  one  year  later  (1216), 
•was  the  result  of  vexation  of  spirit  or  surfeit 
of  peaches  and  cider,  or  poison,  history  does 
not  positively  say.  But  England  shed  no 
tears  for  the  King  to  whom  she  owes  her 
liberties  in  the  Magna  Charta. 


CHAPTER    IV 

For  the  succeeding  56  years  John's  son, 
Henry  IH.,  was  King  of  England.  While 
this  vain,  irresolute,  ostentatious  king  was 
extorting  money  for  his  ambitious  designs 
and  extravagant  pleasures,  and  struggling 
to  get  back  the  pledges  given  in  the  Great 
Charter,  new  and  higher  forces,  to  which 
he  gave  no  heed,  were  at  work  in  his 
kingdom. 

Paris  at  this  time  was  the  centre  of  a 
great  intellectual  revival,  brought  about  by 
the  Crusades.  We  have  seen  that  through 
the  despised  Jew,  at  the  time  of  the  Con- 
quest, a  higher  civilization  was  brought  into 
England.  Along  with  his  hoarded  gold 
came  knowledge  and  culture,  which  he  had 
obtained  from  the  Saracen.  Now,  these 
germs  had  been  revived  by  direct  contact 
with  the  sources  of  ancient  knowledge  in 


52  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

the  East  during  the  Crusades ;  and  while  the 
long  mental  torpor  of  Europe  was  rolling 
away  like  mist  before  the  rising  sun,  Eng- 
land felt  the  warmth  of  the  same  quicken- 
ing rays,  and  Oxford  took  on  a  new  life. 

It  was  not  the  stately  Oxford  of  to-day, 
but  a  rabble  of  roystering,  revelling  youths, 
English,  Welsh,  and  Scotch,  who  fiercely 
fought  out  their  fathers'  feuds. 

They  were  a  turbulent  mob,  who  gave  ad- 
vance opinion,  as  it  were,  upon  every  eccle- 
siastical or  political  measure,  by  fighting  it 
out  on  the  streets  of  their  town,  so  that  an 
outbreak  at  Oxford  became  a  sort  of  prelude 
to  every  great  political  movement. 

Impossible  as  it  seems,  intellectual  life 
grew  and  expanded  in  this  tumultuous  at- 
mosphere; and  while  the  democratic  spirit 
of  the  University  threatened  the  king,  its 
spirit  of  free  intellectual  inquiry  shook  the 
Church. 

The  revival  of  classical  learning,  bring- 
ing streams  of  thought  from  old  Greek  and 
Latin  fountains,  caused  a  sudden  expansion. 
It  was  like  the  discovery  of  an  unsuspected 
and  greater  world,  with  a  body  of  new  truth, 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  $3 

which  threw  the  old  into  contemptuous  dis- 
use. A  spirit  of  doubt,  scepticism,  and  de- 
nial, was  engendered.  They  comprehended 
now  why  Abelard  had  claimed  the  "su- 
premacy of  reason  over  faith,"  and  why 
Italian  poets  smiled  at  dreams  of  "  immor- 
tality." Then,  too,  the  new  culture  com- 
pelled respect  for  infidel  and  for  Jew.  Was 
it  not  from  their  impious  hands,  that  this 
new  knowledge  of  the  physical  universe  had 
been  received? 

Eoger  Bacon  drank  deeply  from  these 
fountains,  new  and  old,  and  struggled  like 
a  giant  to  illumine  the  darkness  of  his  time, 
by  systematizing  all  existing  knowledge. 
His  ''Opus  Majus"  was  intended  to  bring 
these  riches  to  the  unlearned.  But  he  died 
uncomprehended,  and  it  was  reserved  for 
later  ages  to  give  recognition  to  his  stupen- 
dous work,  wrought  in  the  twilight  out  of 
dimly  comprehended  truth. 

Pursued  by  the  dream  of  recovering  the 
French  Empire,  lost  by  his  father,  and  of  re- 
tracting the  promises  given  in  the  Charter, 
Henry  III.  spent  his  entire  reign  in  conflict 
with  the  barons  and  ijhe  people,  who  were 


54         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

closely  drawn  together  by  the  common  dan- 
ger and  rallied  to  the  defence  of  their  liberties 
under  the  leadership  of  Simon  de  Montfort. 

It  was  at  the  town  of  Oxford  that  the 
great  council  of  barons  and  bishops  held  its 
meetings.  This  council,  which  had  long 
been  called  "Parliament"  (from  parler),  in 
the  year  1265  became  for  the  first  time  a 
representative  body,  when  Simon  de  Mont- 
fort summoned  not  alone  the  lords  and 
bishops — but  two  citizens  from  every  city, 
and  two  burghers  from  every  borough.  A 
Rubicon  was  passed  when  the  merchant,  and 
the  shopkeeper,  sat  for  the  first  time  with 
the  noble  and  the  bishops  in  the  great 
council.  It  was  thirty  years  before  the 
change  was  fully  effected,  it  being  in  the 
year  1295,  a  little  more  than  600  years  ago, 
that  the  first  true  Parliament  met.  But  the 
"  House  of  Lords  "  and  the  germ  of  the 
"  House  of  Commons,"  existed  in  this  as- 
sembly at  Oxford  in  1265,  and  a  govern- 
ment "  of  the  people,  for  the  people,  by  the 
people,"  had  commenced. 

Edward  I.,  the  son  and  successor  of 
Henry  HI.,  not  only  graciously  confirmed 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         55 

the  Great  Charter,  but  added  to  its  privi- 
leges. His  expulsion  of  the  Jews,  is  the  one 
dark  blot  on  his  reign. 

He  conquered  North  Wales,  the  strong- 
hold where  those  Keltic  Britons,  the  Welsh, 
had  always  maintained  a  separate  exist- 
ence ;  and  as  a  recompense  for  their  wounded 
feelings  bestowed  upon  the  heir  to  the 
throne,  the  title  ^^ Prince  of  Wales." 

Westminster  Abbey  was  completed  at 
this  time  and  began  to  be  the  resting-place 
for  England's  illustrious  dead.  The  inven- 
tion of  gunpowder,  which  was  to  make  iron- 
clad knights  a  romantic  tradition,  also  be- 
longs 10  this  period,  which  saw  too,  the  con- 
quest of  Scotland;  and  the  magic  stone  sup- 
posed to  have  been  Jacob's  pillow  at  Bethel, 
and  which  was  the  Scottish  talisman,  was 
carried  to  W^estminster  Abbey  and  built 
into  a  coronation-chair,  which  has  been  used 
at  the  crowning  of  every  English  sovereign 
since  that  time. 

Scottish  liberties  were  not  so  sacrificed  by 
this  conquest  as  had  been  the  Irish.  The 
Scots  would  not  be  slaves,  nor  would  they 
stay  conquered  without  many  a  struggle. 


S6         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

Eobert  Bruce  led  a  great  rebellion,  which 
extended  into  the  succeeding  reign,  and 
Bruce's  name  was  covered  with  glory  by  his 
great  victory  at  Bannockburn  (1314:). 

We  need  not  linger  over  the  twenty  years 
during  which  Edward  II.,  by  his  private  in- 
famies, so  exasperated  his  wife  and  son  that 
they  brought  about  his  deposition,  which 
Tvas  followed  soon  after  by  his  murder ;  and 
then  by  a  disgraceful  regency,  during  which 
the  Queen's  favorite,  Mortimer,  was  virtu- 
ally king.  But  King  Edward  III.  com- 
menced to  rule  with  a  strong  hand.  As 
soon  as  he  was  eighteen  years  old  he  sum- 
moned the  Parliament.  Mortimer  was 
hanged  at  Tyburn,  and  his  queen-mother 
was  immured  for  life. 

We  have  turned  our  backs  upon  Old  Eng- 
land. The  England  of  a  representative 
Parliament  and  a  House  of  Commons,  of 
ideals  derived  from  a  wider  knowledge,  the 
England  of  a  Westminster  Abbey,  and  gun- 
powder, and  cloth -weaving,  is  the  England 
we  all  know  to-day.  Vicious  kings  and 
greed  of  territory,  and  lust  of  power,  will 
keep  the  road  from  beis^  a.  smooth  one, 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         57 

but  it  leads  direct  to  the  England  of  Ed- 
ward VII. ;  and  1906  was  roughly  outlined 
in  1327,  when  Edward  III.  grasped  the 
helm  with  the  decision  of  a  master. 

After  completing  the  subjection  of  Scot- 
land he  invaded  France, — the  pretext  of 
resisting  her  designs  upon  the  Netherlands, 
being  merely  a  cover  for  his  own  thirst  for 
territory  and  conquest.  The  victory  over 
the  French  at  Crecy,  1346,  (and  later  of  Poi- 
tiers,) covered  the  warlike  king  and  his  son, 
Edward  the  "Black  Prince,"  with  imperish- 
able renown.  Small  cannon  v/ere  first  used 
at  that  battle.  The  knights  and  the  archers 
laughed  at  the  little  toy,  but  found  it  use- 
ful in  frightening  the  enemies'  horses. 

Edward  III.  covered  England  with  a 
mantle  of  military  glory,  for  which  she  had 
to  pay  dearly  later.  He  elevated  the  king- 
ship to  a  more  dazzling  height,  for  which 
there  have  also  been  some  expensive  reckon- 
ings since.  He  introduced  a  new  and  higher 
dignity  into  nobility  by  the  title  of  Duke, 
which  he  bestowed  upon  his  sons ;  the  great 
landholders  or  barons,  having  until  that  time 
constituted  a  body  in  which  all  were  peers. 


S8         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

He  has  been  the  idol  of  heroic  England. 
But  he  awoke  the  dream  of  French  con- 
quest, and  bequeathed  to  his  successors  a 
fatal  war,  which  lasted  for  100  years. 

The  "Black  Prince"  died,  and  the  "Black 
Death,"  a  fearful  pestilence,  desolated  a 
land  already  decimated  by  protracted  wars. 
The  valiant  old  King,  after  a  life  of  brilliant 
triumphs,  carried  a  sad  and  broken  heart  to 
the  grave,  and  Eichard  II.,  son  of  the  heroic 
Prince  Edward,  was  king. 

This  last  of  the  Plantagenets  had  need  of 
great  strength  and  wisdom  to  cope  with  the 
forces  stirring  at  that  time  in  his  kingdom, 
and  w^as  singularly  deficient  in  both.  The 
costly  conquests  of  his  grandfather,  w-ere  a 
troublesome  legacy  to  his  feeble  grandson. 
Enormous  taxes  unjustly  levied  to  pay  for- 
past  glories,  do  not  improve  the  temper  of  a 
people.  A  shifting  of  the  burden  from  one 
class  to  another  arrayed  all  in  antagonisms 
against  each  other,  and  finally,  when  the  bur- 
den fell  upon  the  lowest  order,  as  it  is  apt 
to  do,  it  rose  in  fierce  rebellion  under  the 
leadership  of  Wat  Tyler,  a  blacksmith  (1381). 

Concessions   were  granted  and  quiet  re- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         59 

stored,  but  the  people  had  learned  a  new  way 
of  throv/ing  off  injustice.  There  began  to 
be  a  new  sentiment  in  the  air.  Men  were 
asking  why  the  few  should  dress  in  velvet 
and  the  many  in  rags.  It  was  the  first 
English  revolt  against  the  tyranny  of  wealth, 
when  people  were  heard  on  the  streets  sing- 
ing the  couplet — 

"When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span, 
Who  veas  then  the  gentleman?" 

As  in  the  times  of  the  early  Saxon  kings, 
the  cause  breeding  destruction  was  the  wid- 
ening distance  between  the  king  and  the 
people.  In  those  earlier  times  the  people 
unresistingly  lapsed  into  decadence,  but  the 
Anglo-Saxon  had  learned  much  since  then, 
and  it  was  not  so  safe  to  degrade  him  and 
trample  on  his  rights. 

Then,  too,  John  Wickliffe  had  been  telling 
some  very  plain  truths  to  the  people  about 
the  Church  of  Rome,  and  there  was  develop- 
ing a  sentiment  which  made  Pope  and  Clergy 
tremble.  There  was  a  spirit  of  inquiry, 
having  its  centre  at  Oxford,  looking  into 
the   title-deeds   of   the    great   ecclesiastical 


6o         A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

despotism.  Wickliffe  heretically  claimed 
that  the  Bible  was  the  one  ground  of  faith, 
and  he  added  to  his  heresy  by  translating 
that  Book  into  simple  Saxon  English,  that 
men  might  learn  for  themselves  what  was 
Christ's  message  to  man. 

Luther's  protest  in  the  16th  Century  was 
but  the  echo  of  Wickliffe's  in  the  14th, — 
against  the  tyranny  of  a  Church  from  which 
all  spiritual  life  had  departed,  and  which  in 
its  decay  tightened  its  grasp  upon  the  very 
tilings  which  its  founder  put  "  behind  Him'* 
in  the  temptation  on  the  mountain,  and 
aimed  at  becoming  a  temporal  despotism. 

Closely  intermingled  with  these  struggles 
was  going  on  another,  unobserved  at  the 
time.  Three  languages  held  sway  in  Eng- 
land— Latin  in  the  Church,  French  in  polite 
society,  and  English  among  the  people. 
Chaucer's  genius  selected  the  language  of 
the  people  for  its  expression,  as  also  of  course, 
did  Wickliffe  in  his  translation  of  the  Bible. 
French  and  Latin  were  dethroned,  and  the 
"King's  English"  became  the  language  of 
the  literature  and  speech  of  the  English 
nation. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  6l 

He  would  have  been  a  wise  and  great 
King  who  could  have  comprehended  and 
controlled  all  the  various  forces  at  work  at 
this  time,  Eichard  II.  was  neither.  This 
seething,  tumbling  mass  of  popular  discon- 
tents was  besides  only  the  groundwork  for 
the  personal  strifes  and  ambitions  which 
raged  about  the  throne.  The  wretched  King, 
embroiled  with  every  class  and  every  party, 
was  pronounced  by  Parliament  unfit  to 
reign,  the  same  body  which  deposed  him, 
giving  the  crown  to  his  cousin  Henry  of 
Lancaster  (1399),  and  the  reign  of  the  Plan- 
tagenets  was  ended. 


CHAPTER    V 

The  new  king  did  not  inherit  the  throne ; 
he  was  elected  to  it.  He  was  an  arbitrary 
creation  of  Parliament.  The  Duke  of  Lan- 
caster, Henry's  father  (John  of  Gaunt),  was 
only  a  younger  son  of  Edward  HI.  Accord- 
ing to  the  strict  rules  of  hereditary  succes- 
sion, there  were  two  others  with  claims  su- 
perior to  Henry's.  Richard  Duke  of  York, 
his  cousin,  claimed  a  double  descent  from 
the  Duke  Clarence  and  also  from  the  Duke 
of  York,  both  sons  of  Edward  III. 

This  led  later  to  the  dreariest  chapter  iu 
English  history,  "the  Wars  of  the  Roses." 

It  is  an  indication  of  the  enormous  in- 
crease in  the  strength  of  Parliament,  that 
such  an  exercise  of  power,  the  creating  of 
a  king,  was  possible.  Haughty,  arrogant 
kings  bowed  submissively  to  its  will. 
Henry   could   not    make   laws   nor   impose 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         63 

taxes  without  first  suramoning  Parliament 
and  obtaining  his  subjects'  consent.  But  cor- 
rupting influences  were  at  work  which  were 
destined  to  cheat  England  out  of  her  liber- 
ties for  many  a  year. 

The  impoverishment  of  the  country  to  pay 
for  war  and  royal  extravagances,  had  awak- 
ened a  troublesome  spirit  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  Cruelty  to  heretics  also,  and  op- 
pressive enactments  were  fought  and  de- 
feated in  this  body.  The  King,  clergy,  and 
nobles,  were  drawing  closer  together  and 
farther  away  from  the  peo^jle,  and  were 
devising  ways  of  stifling  their  will. 

If  the  King  might  not  resist  the  will  of 
Parliament,  he  could  fill  it  with  men  who 
would  not  resist  his;  so,  by  a  system  of 
bribery  and  force  in  the  boroughs,  the 
House  of  Commons  had  injected  into  it 
enough  of  the  right  sort  to  carry  obnoxious 
measures.  This  was  only  one  of  the  ways 
in  which  the  dearly  bought  liberties  were 
being  defeated. 

Henry  IV.,  the  first  Lancastrian  king, 
lighted  the  fires  of  persecution  in  England. 
The   infamous    "Statute    of    Heresy"  was 


64         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

passed  1401.  Its  first  victim  was  a  priest 
who  was  thrown  to  the  flames  for  denying 
the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation. 

VVickhffe  had  left  to  the  people  not  a  party, 
but  a  sentiment.  The  "Lollards,"  as  they 
were  called,  were  not  an  organization,  but 
rather  a  pervading  atmosphere  of  revolt, 
which  naturally  combined  with  the  social 
discontent  of  the  time,  and  there  came  to  be 
more  of  hate  than  love  in  the  movement, 
which  was  at  its  foundation  a  revolt  against 
inequality  of  condition.  As  in  all  such  move- 
ments, much  that  was  vicious  and  unwise 
in  time  mingled  with  it,  tending  to  give 
some  excuse  for  its  repression.  The  dis- 
carding of  an  old  faith,  unless  at  once  re- 
placed by  a  new  one,  is  a  time  fraught  with 
many  dangers  to  Society  and  State. 

Such  were  some  of  the  forces  at  work  for 
fourteen  brief  years  while  Henry  IV.  wore 
the  coveted  crown,  and  while  his  son,  the 
roystering  "Prince  Hal,"  in  the  new  charac- 
ter of  King  (Henry  V.)  lived  out  his  brief 
nine  years  of  glory  and  conquest. 

France,  with  an  insane  King,  vicious 
Queen  Kegent,  and  torn  by  the  dissensions 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         65 

of  ambitious  Dukes,  had  reached  her  hour 
of  greatest  weakness,  when  Henry  V.  swept 
down  upon  her  with  his  archers,  and  broke 
her  spirit  by  his  splendid  victory  at  Agin^ 
court;  then  married  her  Princess  Kath- 
arine, and  was  proclaimed  Eegent  of  France. 
The  rough  wooing  of  his  French  bride,  im- 
mortalized by  Shakespeare,  throws  a  gla- 
mour of  romance  over  the  time. 

But  an  all -subduing  King  cut  short 
Henry's  triumphs.  He  was  stricken  and 
died  (14:22),  leaving  an  infant  son  nine 
months  old,  who  bore  the  weight  of  the 
new  title,  "King  of  England  and  France," 
w^hile  Henry's  brother,  the  Duke  of  Bed- 
ford, reigned  as  Regent. 

Then  it  was,  that  by  a  mysterious  inspi- 
ration, Joan  of  Arc,  a  child  and  a  peasant, 
led  the  French  army  to  the  besieged  City 
of  Orleans,  and  the  crucial  battle  was 
won. 

Charles  VII.  was  King.  The  English 
were  driven  out  of  France,  and  the  Hundred 
Years'  War  ended  in  defeat  (1453).  Eng- 
land had  lost  Aquitaine,  which  for  two  hun- 
dred years  (since  Henry  II.)  had  been  hers, 


66         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

and  had  not  a  foot  of  ground  on  Norman 
soil. 

The  long  shadow  cast  by  Edward  III. 
upon  England  was  deepening.  A  ruinous 
war  had  drained  her  resources  and  arrested 
her  liberties ;  and  now  the  odium  of  defeat 
made  the  burdens  it  imposed  intolerable. 
The  temper  of  every  class  was  strained  to 
the  danger  point.  The  wretched  govern- 
ment was  held  responsible,  followed,  as 
usual,  by  impeachments,  murders,  and  im- 
potent outbursts  of  fury. 

While,  owing  to  social  processes  long  at 
work,  feudalism  was  in  fact  a  ruin,  a  mere 
empty  shell,  it  still  seemed  powerful  as  ever; 
just  as  an  oak,  long  after  its  roots  are  dead, 
will  still  carry  aloft  a  waving  mass  of  green 
leafage.  The  great  Earl  of  Warwick  when 
he  went  to  Parliament  was  still  followed 
by  600  liveried  retainers.  But  when  Jack 
Cade  led  20,000  men  in  rebellion  at  the  close 
of  the  French  war,  they  were  not  the  serfs 
and  villeinage  of  other  times,  but  farmers 
and  laborers,  who,  when  they  demanded  a 
more  economical  expenditure  of  royal  rev- 
enue, freedom  at  elections,  and  the  removal 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         67 

of  restrictions  on  their  dress  and  living, 
knew  their  rights,  and  were  not  going  to 
give  them  up  without  a  struggle. 

But  the  madness  of  personal  ambition  was 
going  to  work  deeper  ruin  and  more  com- 
plete wreck  of  England's  fortunes.  We 
have  seen  that  by  the  interposition  of  Par- 
liament, the  House  of  Lancaster  had  been 
placed  on  the  throne  contrary  to  the  tradi- 
tion which  gave  the  succession  to  the  oldest 
branch,  which  Richard,  the  Duke  of  York, 
claimed  to  represent ;  his  claim  strengthened 
by  a  double  descent  from  Edward  III. 
through  his  two  sons,  Lionel  and  Edward. 

For  twenty-one  years,  (1450-1-iYl)  these 
descendants  of  Edward  III.  were  engaged 
in  the  most  savage  war,  for  purely  selfish 
and  personal  ends,  with  not  one  noble  or 
chivalric  element  to  redeem  the  disgraceful 
exhibition  of  human  nature  at  its  worst. 
Murders,  executions,  treacheries,  adorn  a 
network  of  intrigue  and  villany,  which  was 
enough  to  have  made  the  "  White"  and  the 
"Eed  Rose"  forever  hateful  to  English  eyes. 

The  great  Earl  of  Warwick  led  the  White 
Rose  of  York  to  victory,  sending  the  Lan- 


68         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

castrian  King  to  the  tower,  his  wife  and 
child  fugitives  from  the  Kingdom,  and  pro- 
claimed Edward,  (son  of  Richard  Duke  of 
York,  the  original  claimant,  who  had  been 
slain  in  the  conflict).  King  of  England. 

Then,  with  an  unscrupulousness  worthy 
of  the  time  and  the  cause,  Warwick  opened 
communication  with  the  fugitive  Queen,  of- 
fering her  his  services,  betrothed  his  daugh- 
ter to  the  young  Edward,  Prince  of  Wales, 
took  up  the  red  Lancastrian  rose  from  the 
dust  of  defeat, — brought  the  captive  he  had 
sent  to  the  tower  back  to  his  throne — only 
to  see  him  once  more  dragged  down  again 
by  the  Yorkists — and  for  the  last  time  re- 
turned to  captivity ;  leaving  his  wife  a  pris- 
oner and  his  young  son  dead  at  Tewksbury, 
stabbed  by  Yorkist  lords.  Henry  VI.  died 
in  the  Tower,  "mysteriously,"  as  did  all  the 
deposed  and  imprisoned  Kings;  Warwick 
was  slain  in  battle,  and  with  Edward  IV. 
the  reign  of  the  House  of  York  commenced. 

Such  in  brief  is  the  story  of  the  "  Wars 
of  the  Roses"  and  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick, 
the  "King  Maker. ^^ 

At  the  close  of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses, 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         69 

feudalism  was  a  ruin.  The  oak  with  its 
dead  roots  had  been  prostrated  by  the 
storm.  The  imposing  system  had  wrought 
its  own  destruction.  Eighty  Princes  of  the 
blood  royal  had  perished,  and  more  than  half 
of  the  Nobility  had  died  on  the  field  or  the 
scaffold,  or  were  fugitives  in  foreign  lands. 
The  great  Duke  of  Exeter,  brother-in-law 
to  a  King,  was  seen  barefoot  begging  bread 
from  door  to  door. 

By  the  confiscation  of  one-fifth  of  the 
landed  estate  of  the  Kingdom,  vast  wealth 
poured  into  the  King's  treasury.  He  had 
no  need  now  to  summon  Parliament  to  vote 
him  supplies.  The  clergy,  rendered  feeble 
and  lifeless  from  decline  in  spiritual  enthu- 
siasm, and  by  its  blind  hostility  to  the  intel- 
lectual movement  of  the  time,  crept  closer 
to  the  throne,  while  Parliament,  with  its 
partially  disfranchised  House  of  Commons, 
was  so  rarely  summoned  that  it  almost 
ceased  to  exist.  In  the  midst  of  the  general 
wreck,  the  Kingship  towered  in  solitary 
greatness. 

Edward  IV.  was  absolute  sovereign.  He 
had  no  one  to  fear,  unless  it  was  his  in- 


70         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

trigiiing  brother  Eichard,  Duke  of  Glouces- 
ter, who,  during  the  twenty-three  years  of 
Edward's  reign,  was  undoubtedly  carefully 
planning  the  bloodstained  steps  by  which 
he  himself  should  reach  the  throne. 

Acute  in  intelligence,  distorted  in  form 
and  in  character,  this  Eichard  was  a  mon- 
ster of  iniquity.  The  hapless  boy  left  heir 
to  the  throne  upon  the  death  of  Edward 
IV.,  his  father,  v/as  placed  under  the  guar- 
dianship of  his  misshapen  uncle,  who  until 
the  majority  of  the  young  King,  Edward 
V. ,  was  to  reign  under  the  title  of  Protec- 
tor. 

How  this  "Protector"  protected  his  neph- 
ews all  know.  The  two  boys  (Edward  V. 
and  Eichard,  Duke  of  York)  were  carried  to 
the  Tower.  The  world  has  been  reluctant  to 
believe  that  they  were  really  smothered,  as 
has  been  said;  but  the  finding,  nearly  two 
hundred  years  later,  of  the  skeletons  of  two 
children  which  had  been  buried  or  concealed 
at  the  foot  of  the  stairs  leading  to  their 
place  of  confinement,  seems  to  confirm  it 
beyond  a  doubt. 

Ketribution    came   swiftly.      Two  years 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         71 

later  Richard  fell  at  the  battle  of  Bosworth 
Field,  and  the  crown  won  by  numberless 
crimes,  rolled  under  a  hawthorn  bush.  It 
was  picked  up  and  placed  upon  a  worthier 
head. 

Henry  Tudor,  an  offshoot  of  the  House  of 
Lancaster,  was  proclaimed  King  Henry  VII., 
and  his  marriage  with  Princess  Elizabeth  of 
York  (sister  of  the  princes  murdered  in  the 
Tower)  forever  blended  the  White  and  the 
Red  Rose  in  peaceful  union. 

During  all  this  time,  while  Kings  came 
and  Kings  went,  the  people  viewed  these 
changes  from  afar.  But  if  they  had  no 
longer  any  share  in  the  government,  a  great 
expansion  was  going  on  in  their  inner  life. 
Caxton  had  set  up  his  printing  press,  and 
the  "art  preservative  of  all  arts,"  was  bring- 
ing streams  of  new  knowledge  into  thou- 
sands of  homes.  Copernicus  had  discovered 
a  new  Heaven,  and  Columbus  a  new  Earth. 
The  sun  no  longer  circled  around  the  Earth, 
nor  was  the  Earth  a  flat  plain.  There  was 
a  revival  of  classic  learning  at  Oxford,  and 
Erasmus,  the  great  preacher,  was  founding 
schools  and  preparing  the  minds  of  the  peo- 


72  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

pie  for  the  impending  change,  which  was 
soon  to  be  wrought  by  that  Monk  in  Ger- 
many, whose  soul  was  at  this  time  begin- 
ning to  be  stirred  to  its  mighty  effort  at 
reform. 


CHAPTER  VI 

When  in  the  year  1509  a  handsome  youth 
of  eighteen  came  to  the  throne,  the  hopes 
of  England  ran  high.  His  intelhgence,  his 
frank,  genial  manners,  his  sympathy  with 
the  "new  learning,"  won  all  classes.  Eras- 
mus in  his  hopes  of  purifying  the  Church, 
and  Sir  Thomas  More  in  his  "Utopian" 
dreams  for  politics  and  society,  felt  that  a 
friend  had  come  to  the  throne  in  the  young 
Henry  VIH. 

Spain  had  become  great  through  a  union 
of  the  rival  Kingdoms  Castile  and  Aragon ; 
so  a  marriage  with  the  Princess  Katharine, 
daughter  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  had 
been  arranged  for  the  young  Prince  Henry, 
who  had  quietly  accepted  for  his  Queen  his 
brother's  widow,  six  years  his  senior. 

France  under  Francis  I.  had  risen  into  a 
state  no  less    imposing    than    Spain,  and 


74  A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

Henry  began  to  be  stirred  with  an  ambition 
to  take  part  in  the  drama  of  events  going  on 
upon  the  greater  stage,  across  the  Channel. 
The  old  dream  of  French  conquest  returned. 
Francis  I.  and  Charles  V.  of  Germany  had 
commenced  their  struggle  for  supremacy  in 
Europe.  Henry's  ambition  was  fostered  by 
their  vying  with  each  other  to  secure  his 
friendship.  He  was  soon  launched  in  a 
deep  game  of  diplomacy,  in  which  three  in- 
triguing Sovereigns  were  striving  each  to 
outwit  the  others. 

What  Henry  lacked  in  experience  and 
craft  was  supplied  by  his  Chancellor  Wol- 
sey,  whose  private  and  personal  ambition 
to  reach  the  Papal  Chair  was  dexterously 
mingled  with  the  royal  game.  The  game 
was  dazzling  and  absorbing,  but  it  was 
unexpectedly  interrupted;  and  the  golden 
dreams  of  Erasmus  and  More,  of  a  slow  and 
orderly  development  in  England  through  an 
expanding  intelligence,  were  rudely  shaken. 

Martin  Luther  audaciously  nailed  on  the 
door  of  the  Church  at  Wittenberg  a  protest 
against  the  selling  of  papal  indulgences,  and 
the  pent-up  hopes,  griefs   and    despair  of 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         75 

centuries  burst  into  a  storm  which  shook 
Europe  to  its  centre. 

Since  England  had  joined  in  the  great 
game  of  European  pohtics,  she  had  ad- 
vanced from  being  a  third-rate  power  to  the 
front  rank  among  nations ;  go  it  was  with 
great  satisfaction  that  CathoHc  Europe 
heard  Henry  VIII.  denounce  the  new  Refor- 
mation, which  had  swiftly  assumed  alarm- 
ing proportions. 

But  a  woman's  eyes  were  to  change  all 
this.  As  Henry  looked  into  the  fair  face  of 
Anne  Boleyn,  his  conscience  began  to  be 
stirred  over  his  marriage  with  his  brother's 
widow,  Katharine.  He  confided  his  scruples 
to  Wolsey,  who  promised  to  use  his  efforts 
with  the  Pope  to  secure  a  divorce  from 
Katharine.  But  this  lady  was  aunt  to 
Charles  V,,  the  great  Champion  of  the 
Church  in  its  fight  with  Protestantism.  It 
would  never  do  to  alienate  him.  So  the 
divorce  was  refused. 

Henry  VIII.  was  not  as  flexible  and  ami- 
able now  as  the  youth  of  eighteen  had 
been.  He  defied  the  Pope,  married  Anne 
(1533),  and  sent  his  Minister  into  disgrace 


76         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

for  not  serving  him  more  effectually. 
"There  was  the  weight  which  pulled  me 
down,"  said  Wolsey  of  Anne,  and  death 
from  a  broken  heart  mercifully  saved  the 
old  man  from  the  scaffold  he  would  cer- 
tainly have  reached. 

The  legion  of  demons  which  had  been 
slumbering  in  the  King  were  awakened. 
He  would  break  no  law,  but  he  would  bend 
the  law  to  his  will.  He  commanded  a 
trembling  Parliament  to  pass  an  act  sus- 
taining his  marriage  with  Anne.  Another 
permitting  him  to  name  his  successor,  and 
then  another — making  him  supreme  head  of 
the  Church  in  England.  The  Pope  was  for- 
ever dethroned  in  his  Kingdom,  and  Prot- 
estantism had  achieved  a  bloodstained 
victory. 

Henry  alone  could  judge  what  was  ortho- 
doxy and  what  heresy ;  but  to  disagree  with 
hiniy  was  death.  Traitor  and  heretic  went 
to  the  scaffold  in  the  same  hurdle;  the  Cath- 
olic who  denied  the  King's  supremacy  rid- 
ing side  by  side  with  the  Protestant  who 
denied  transubstantiation.  The  Protestant- 
ism of  this  great  convert  was  political,  not 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         77 

religious;  he  despised  the  doctrines  of  Lu- 
theranism,  and  it  was  dangerous  to  believe 
too  much  and  equally  dangerous  to  believe 
too  little.  Heads  dropped  like  leaves  in  the 
forest,  and  in  three  years  the  Queen  who 
had  overturned  England  and  almost  Europe, 
was  herself  carried  to  the  scaffold  (1536). 

It  was  in  truth  a  "  Reign  of  Terror"  by  an 
absolutism  standing  upon  the  ruin  of  every 
rival.  The  power  of  the  Barons  had  gone ; 
the  Clergy  were  panic-stricken,  and  Parlia- 
ment was  a  servant,  which  arose  and  bowed 
humbly  to  his  vacant  throne  at  mention  of 
his  name!  A  member  for  whom  he  had 
sent  knelt  trembling  one  day  before  him. 
"Get  my  bill  passed  to-morrow,  my  little 
man,"  said  the  King,  "or  to-morrow,  this 
head  of  yours  will  be  off."  The  next  day 
the  bill  passed,  and  millions  of  Church 
property  was  confiscated,  to  be  thrown  away 
in  gambling,  or  to  enrich  the  adherents  of 
the  King. 

Thomas  Cromwell,  who  had  succeeded  to 
Wolsey's  vacant  place,  was  his  efficient  in- 
strument. This  student  of  Machiavelli's 
"Prince,"  without  passion  or  hate,  pity  or 


78         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

regret,  marked  men  for  destruction,  as  a 
woodman  does  tall  trees,  the  highest  and 
proudest  names  in  the  Kingdom  being  set 
down  in  his  little  notebook  under  the  head 
of  either  "Heresy"  or  "Treason."  Sir 
Thomas  More,  one  of  the  wisest  and  best 
of  men,  would  not  say  he  thought  the  mar- 
riage with  Katharine  had  been  unlawful, 
and  paid  his  head  as  the  price  of  his  fearless 
honesty. 

Jane  Seymour,  whom  Henry  married  the 
day  after  Anne  Boleyn's  execution,  died 
within  a  year  at  the  birth  of  a  son  (Edward 
VL).  In  1540  Cromwell  arranged  another 
union  with  the  plainest  woman  in  Europe, 
Anne  of  Cleves;  which  proved  so  distasteful 
to  Henry  that  he  speedily  divorced  her,  and 
in  resentment  at  Cromwell's  having  en- 
trapped him,  by  a  flattering  portrait  drawn 
"by  Holbein,  the  Minister  came  under  his 
displeasure,  which  at  that  time  meant 
death.  He  was  beheaded  in  1540,  and  in 
that  same  year  occurred  the  King's  marriage 
with  Katharine  Howard,  who  one  year  later 
met  the  same  fate  as  Anne  Boleyn. 

Katharine  Parr,  the  sixth  and  last  wife, 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         79 

and  an  ardent  Protestant  and  reformer,  also 
narrowly  escaped,  and  would  undoubtedly 
at  last  have  gone  to  the  block.  But  Henry, 
who  at  fifty-six  was  infirm  and  wrecked  in 
health,  died  in  the  year  1547,  the  signing  of 
death-warrants  being  his  occupation  to  the 
very  end. 

Whatever  his  motive,  Henry  VIII.  had  in 
making  her  Protestant,  placed  England 
firmly  in  the  line  of  the  world's  highest 
progress;  and  strange  to  say,  that  Kingdom 
is  most  indebted  to  two  of  her  worst 
Kings. 

The  crown  passed  to  the  son  of  Jane  Sey- 
mour, Edward  VI.,  a  feeble  boy  of  ten.  In 
view  of  the  doubtful  validity  of  his  father's 
divorce,  and  the  consequent  doubt  cast  upon 
the  legitimacy  of  Edward's  two  sisters,  Mary 
and  Elizabeth,  the  young  king  was  per- 
suaded to  name  his  cousin  Lady  Jane  Grey 
as  his  heir  and  successor.  This  gentle  girl 
of  seventeen,  sensitive  and  thoughtful,  a 
devout  reformer,  who  read  Greek  and  He- 
brew and  wrote  Latin  poetry,  is  a  pathetic 
figure  in  history,  where  we  see  her,  the  nn- 
wiiling  wearer  of  a  crown  for  ten  days,  and 


8o         A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

then  with  her  young  husband  hurried  to  that 
fatal  Tower,  and  to  death.    Upon  the  death  of 
Edward  this  unhappy  child  was  proclaimed 
Queen  of  England.    But  the  change  in  the 
succession  produced  an  unexpected  uprising, 
in  which  even  Protestants  joined.      Lady 
Jane  Grey  was  hurried  to  the  block,  and  the 
Catholic  Mary  to  the  throne.     Henry's  di- 
vorce was  declared  void,  and  his  first  mar- 
riage valid.     Elizabeth  was  thus  set  aside  by 
Act  of  Parliament ;  and  as  she  waited  in  the 
Tower,  while  her  remorseless  sister  vainly 
sought  for  proofs  of  her  complicity  with  the 
recent  rebellion,  she  was  seemingly  nearer  to 
a  scaffold  than  to  a  throne. 

When  we  remember  that  there  coursed  in 
the  veins  of  Mary  Tudor  the  blood  of  cruel 
Spanish  kings,  mingled  with  that  of  Henry 
VIII.,  can  we  w^onder  that  she  was  cruel  and 
remorseless?  Her  marriage  with  Philip  II. 
of  Spain  quickly  overthrew  the  work  of  her 
father.  Unlike  Henry  VIII.,  Mary  was  im- 
pelled by  deep  convictions ;  and  like  her 
grandmother,  Isabella  I.  of  Spain,  she  perse- 
cuted to  save  from  what  she  believed  was 
death  eternal ;   and  her  cruelty,   although 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         8l 

untempered  by  one  liumane  impulse,  was 
still  prompted  by  a  sincere  fanaticism,  with 
which  was  mingled  an  intense  desire  to 
please  the  Catholic  Philip.  But  Philip  re- 
mained obdurately  in  Spain  ;  and  while  she 
was  lighting  up  all  England  with  a  blaze 
of  martyrs,  Calais, — over  which  the  English 
standard  planted  by  Edward  III.  had  waved 
for  more  than  200  years, — Calais,  the  last 
English  possession  in  France,  was  lost. 
Amid  these  crushing  disappointments,  pub- 
lic and  personal,  Mary  died  (1558),  after  a 
reign  of  only  five  years. 

Elizabeth  with  her  legitimacy  questioned 
was  still  under  the  shadow  of  the  scaffold 
upon  which  her  mother  had  perished.  There 
is  reason  to  believe  that  Philip  II.  turned  the 
delicately  balanced  scale.  It  better  suited 
him  to  have  Elizabeth  occupy  the  throne  of 
England,  than  that  Mary  Stuart,  the  next 
nearest  heir,  should  do  so.  Mary  had  mar- 
ried the  Dauphin  of  France ;  and  France 
was  Philip's  enemy  and  rival.  Better  far 
that  England  should  become  Protestant,  than 
that  France  should  hold  the  balance  of 
power  in  Europe ! 


CHAPTER  VII 

Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Henry  VIII.  and 
Anne  Boleyn,  a  disgraced  and  decapitated 
Queen,  wore  the  crown  of  England.  If  hered- 
ity had  been  as  much  talked  of  then  as  now, 
England  might  have  feared  the  child  of  a 
faithless  wife,  and  a  remorseless,  bloodthirsty 
King.    But  while  Mary,  daughter  of  Kath- 
arine, the  most  pious  and  best  of  mothers, 
had  left  only  a  great  blood-spot  upon  the 
page  of  History,  Elizabeth's  reign  was  to  be 
the  most  wise,  prosperous  and  great,  the 
Kingdom  had  ever  known.     In  her  complex 
character  there  was  the  imperiousness,  au- 
dacity and  unscrupulousness  of  her  father, 
the   voluptuous    pleasure-loving   nature   of 
her  mother,  and  mingled  with  both,  quali- 
ties which  came  from  neither.     She  was  a 
tyrant,  held  in  check  by  a  singular  caution, 
with  an  instinctive  perception  of  the  pres- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         83 

ence  of  danger,  to  which  her  purposes  always 
instantly  bent. 

The  authority  vested  in  her  was  as  abso- 
lute as  her  father's,  but  while  her  imperious 
temper  sacrificed  individuals  without  mercy, 
she  ardently  desired  the  welfar^e  of  her 
Kingdom,  which  she  ruled  with  extraordi- 
nary moderation  and  a  political  sagacity 
almost  without  parallel,  softening,  but  not 
abandoning,  one  of  her  father's  usurpations. 

She  was  a  Protestant  without  any  enthu- 
siasm for  the  religion  she  intended  to  restore 
in  England,  and  prayed  to  the  Virgin  in  her 
own  private  Chapel,  while  she  was  undoing 
the  work  of  her  Catholic  sister  Mary.  Tke 
obsequious  apologies  to  the  Pope  were  with- 
drawn, but  the  Reformation  she  was  going 
to  espouse,  was  not  the  fiery  one  being  fought 
for  in  Germany  and  France.  It  was  mild, 
moderate,  and  like  her  father's,  more  polit- 
ical than  religious.  The  point  she  made 
was  that  there  must  be  religious  uniformity, 
and  conformity  to  the  Established  Church 
of  England — with  its  new  "Articles,"  which 
as  she  often  said,  "left  opinion  free." 

It  was  in  fact  a  softened  reproduction  of 


84         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

her  terrible  father's  attitude.  The  Church, 
(called  an  "Episcopacy,"  on  account  of  the 
jurisdiction  of  its  Bishops,)  was  Protestant 
in  doctrine,  with  gentle  leaning  toward 
Catholicism  in  externals,  held  still  firmly  by 
the  "  Act  of  Supremacy"  in  the  controlling 
hand  of  the  Sovereign.  Above  all  else  de- 
siring peace  and  prosperity  for  England, 
the  keynote  of  Elizabeth's  policy  in  Church 
and  in  State  was  conciliation  and  compro- 
mise. So  the  Church  of  England  was  to  a 
great  extent  a  compromise,  retaining  as 
much  as  the  people  would  bear  of  external 
form  and  ritual,  for  the  sake  of  reconciling 
Catholic  England. 

The  large  element  to  whom  this  was  of- 
fensive was  reinforced  by  returning  refu- 
gees who  brought  with  them  the  stern  doc- 
trines of  Calvin ;  and  they  finally  separated 
themselves  altogether  from  a  Church  in 
which  so  much  of  Papacy  still  lingered,  to 
establish  one  upon  simpler  and  purer  foun- 
dation; hence  they  were  called  "Puritans," 
and  "  Nonconformists,"  and  were  persecuted 
for  violation  of  the  "Act  of  Supremacy." 

The  masculine  side  of  Elizabeth's  charac- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         85 

ter  was  fully  balanced  by  ber  feminine 
foibles.  Her  vanity  was  inordinate.  Her 
love  of  adulation  and  passion  for  display, 
her  caprice,  duplicity,  and  her  reckless  love- 
affairs,  form  a  strange  background  for  the 
calm,  determined,  masterly  statesmanship 
under  which  her  Kingdom  expanded. 

The  subject  of  her  marriage  was  a  mo- 
mentous one.  There  were  plenty  of  aspi- 
rants for  the  honor.  Her  brother-in-law 
Philip,  since  the  abdication  of  Charles  V., 
his  father,  was  a  mighty  King,  ruler  over 
Spain  and  the  Netherlands,  and  was  at  the 
head  of  Catholic  Europe.  He  saw  in  this 
vain,  silly  young  Queen  of  England  an  easy 
prey.  By  marrying  her  he  could  bring 
England  back  to  the  fold,  as  he  had  done 
with  her  sister  Mary,  and  the  Catholic  cause 
would  be  invincible. 

Elizabeth  was  a  coquette,  without  the 
personal  charm  supposed  to  belong  to  that 
dangerous  part  of  humanity.  She  toyed 
with  an  offer  of  marriage  as  does  a  cat  with 
a  mouse.  She  had  never  intended  to  marry 
Philip,  but  she  kept  him  waiting  so  long  for 
her  decision,  and  so  exasperated  him  with 


86         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

her  caprice,  that  he  exclaimed  at  last,  "  That 
girl  has  ten  thousand  devils  in  her."  He 
little  thought,  that  beneath  that  surface  of 
folly  there  was  a  nature  hard  as  steel,  and 
a  calm,  clear,  cool  intelligence,  for  which 
his  own  would  be  no  match,  and  which 
would  one  day  hold  in  check  the  diplomacy 
of  the  "Escurial"  and  outwit  that  of  Eu- 
rope. She  adored  the  culture  brought  by 
the  "new  learning;"  delighted  in  the  so- 
ciety of  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  who  reflected  all 
that  was  best  in  England  of  that  day; 
talked  of  poetry  with  Spenser;  discussed 
philosophy  with  Bruno;  read  Greek  trage- 
dies and  Latin  orations  in  the  original ;  could 
converse  in  French  and  Italian,  and  was  be- 
sides proficient  in  another  language, — the 
language  of  the  fishwife, — which  she  used 
with  startling  effect  with  her  lords  and 
ministers  when  her  temper  was  aroused, 
and  swore  like  a  trooper  if  occasion  re- 
quired. 

But  whatever  else  she  was  doing  she 
never  ceased  to  study  the  new  England  she 
was  ruling.  She  felt,  though  did  not  un- 
derstand,  the  expansion  which  was  going 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         87 

on  in  the  spirit  of  the  people ;  but  instinc- 
tively realized  the  necessity  for  changes  and 
modifications  in  her  Government,  when  the 
temper  of  the  nation  seemed  to  require  it. 

It  was  enormous  common-sense  and  tact 
which  converted  Elizabeth  into  a  liberal 
Sovereign.  Her  instincts  were  despotic. 
When  she  bowed  instantly  to  the  will  of  the 
Commons,  almost  apologizing  for  seeming 
to  resist  it,  it  was  not  because  she  sympa- 
thized with  liberal  sentiments,  but  because 
of  her  profound  political  instincts,  which 
taught  her  the  danger  of  alienating  that 
class  upon  which  the  greatness  of  her  King- 
dom rested.  She  realized  the  truth  forgot- 
ten by  some  of  her  successors,  that  the  Sov- 
ereign and  the  middle  class  must  befriends. 
She  might  resist  and  insult  her  lords  and 
ministers,  send  great  Earls  and  favorites 
ruthlessly  to  the  block,  but  no  slightest 
cloud  must  come  between  her  and  her 
"dear  Commons"  and  people.  This  it  was 
which  made  Spenser's  adulation  in  the 
"Faerie  Queen"  but  an  expression  of  the 
intense  loyalty  of  her  meanest  subject. 

Perhaps  it  was  because  she  remembered 


88         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

that  the  whole  fabric  of  the  Church  rested 
upon  Parliamentary  enactment,  and  that 
she  herself  was  Queen  of  England  by  Par- 
liamentary sanction,  that  she  viewed  sc 
complacently  the  growing  power  of  that 
body  in  dealing  more  and  more  with  mat- 
ters supposed  to  belong  exclusively  to  the 
Crown,  as  for  instance  in  the  struggle 
made  by  the  Commons  to  suppress  monopo- 
lies in  trade,  granted  by  royal  prerogative. 
At  the  first  she  angrily  resisted  the  meas- 
ure. But  finding  the  strength  of  the  pop 
ular  sentiment,  she  gracefully  retreated,  de- 
claring, with  royal  scorn  for  truth,  that 
"  she  had  not  before  known  of  the  existence 
of  such  an  evil." 

In  fact,  lying,  in  her  independent  code  of 
morals,  was  a  virtue,  and  one  to  which  she 
owed  some  of  her  most  brilliant  triumphs 
in  diplomacy.  And  when  the  bald,  unmiti- 
gated lie  was  at  last  found  out,  she  felt  not 
the  slightest  shame,  but  only  amusement  at 
the  simplicity  of  those  who  had  believed  she 
was  speaking  the  truth. 

Her  natural  instincts,  her  thrift,  and  her 
love   of  peace   inclined    her  to  keep  aloof 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         89 

from  the  struggle  going  on  in  Europe  be- 
tween Protestants  and  Catholics.  But  while 
the  news  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Eve  seemed 
to  give  her  no  thrill  of  horror,  she  still 
sent  armies  and  money  to  aid  the  Hu- 
guenots in  France,  and  to  stem  the  perse- 
cutions of  Philip  in  the  Netherlands,  and 
committed  England  fully  to  a  cause  for 
which  she  felt  no  enthusiasm.  She  encour- 
aged every  branch  of  industry,  commerce, 
trade,  fostered  everything  which  would  lead 
to  prosperity.  Listened  to  Raleigh's  plans 
for  colonization  in  America,  permitting  the 
New  Colony  to  be  called  "Virginia"  in  her 
honor  (the  Virgin  Queen).  She  chartered 
the  "Merchant  Company,"  intended  to  ab- 
sorb the  new  trade  with  the  Indies  (1600), 
and  which  has  expanded  into  a  British 
Empire  in  India. 

But  amid  all  this  triumph,  a  sad  and  soli- 
tary woman  sat  on  the  throne  of  England. 
The  only  relation  she  had  in  the  world  was 
her  cousin,  Mary  Stuart,  who  was  plotting 
to  undermine  and  supplant  her. 

The  question  of  Elizabeth's  legitimacy  was 
an  ever  recurring  one,  and  afforded  a  rally- 


90         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

ing  point  for  malcontents,  who  asserted  that 
her  mother's  marriage  with  Henry  VIII. 
was  invahdated  by  the  refusal  of  the  Pope 
to  sanction  the  divorce.  Mary  Stuart,  who 
stood  next  to  Elizabeth  in  the  succession, 
formed  a  centre  from  which  a  network  of 
intrigue  and  conspiracy  was  always  menac- 
ing the  Queen's  peace,  if  not  her  life,  and 
her  crown. 

Scotland,  since  the  extinction  of  the  line 
of  Bruce,  had  been  ruled  by  the  Stuart 
Kings.  Torn  by  internal  feuds  between  her 
clans,  and  by  the  incessant  struggle  against 
English  encroachments,  she  had  drawn  into 
close  friendship  with  France,  which  country 
used  her  for  its  own  ends,  in  harassing 
England,  so  that  the  Scottish  border  was  al- 
ways a  point  of  danger  in  every  quarrel  be- 
tween French  and  English  Kings. 

In  1502  Henry  VIII.  had  bestowed  the 
hand  of  his  sister  Margaret  upon  James  IV. 
of  Scotland,  and  it  seemed  as  if  a  peaceful 
union  was  at  last  secured  with  his  Northern 
neighbor.  But  in  the  war  with  France  which 
soon  followed,  James,  the  Scottish  King, 
turned  to  his  old  ally.     He  was  killed  at 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         Qi 

"Flodden  Field,"  after  suffering  a  crushing 
defeat.  His  successor,  James  V.,  had  mar- 
led Mary  Guise.  Her  family  was  the  head 
and  front  of  the  ultra  Catholic  party  in 
France,  and  her  counsels  probably  influ- 
enced James  to  a  continual  hostility  to  the 
Protestant  Henry,  even  though  he  was  his 
uncle.  The  death  of  James  in  consequence 
of  his  defeat  at  "Solway  Moss"  occurred  im- 
mediately after  the  birth  of  his  daughter, 
Mary  Stuart  (1542). 

This  unhappy  child  at  once  became  the 
centre  of  intriguing  designs;  Henry  VIII. 
wishing  to  betroth  the  little  Queen  to  his 
son,  afterwards  Edward  VI.,  and  thus  for- 
ever unite  the  rival  kingdoms.  But  the 
Guises  made  no  compromises  with  Protes- 
tants !  Mary  Guise,  who  was  now  Regent  of 
the  realm,  had  no  desire  for  a  closer  union 
with  Protestant  England,  and  very  much 
desired  a  nearer  alliance  with  her  own 
France.  Mary  Stuart  was  betrothed  to  the 
Dauphin,  grandson  of  Francis  I. ,  and  was  sent 
to  the  French  Court  to  be  prepared  by  Cath- 
arine de'  Medici  (the  Italian  daughter-in-law 
of  Francis  I.)  for  her  future  exalted  position. 


92         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

In  1561,  Mary  returned  to  England.  Her 
boy-husband  had  died  after  a  reign  of  two 
years.  She  was  nineteen  years  old,  had 
wonderful  beauty,  rare  intelligence,  and 
power  to  charm  like  a  siren.  Her  short 
life  had  been  spent  in  the  most  corrupt  and 
profligate  of  Courts,  under  the  combined 
influence  of  Catharine  de  Medici,  the  worst 
woman  in  Europe,  — and  her  two  uncles  of 
the  House  of  Guise,  who  were  little  better. 
Political  intrigues,  plottings  and  crimes 
were  in  the  very  air  she  breathed  from  in- 
fancy. But  she  was  an  ardent  and  devout 
Catholic,  and  as  such  became  the  centre  and 
the  hope  of  what  still  remained  of  Catholic 
England. 

Elizabeth  would  have  bartered  half  her 
possessions  for  the  one  possession  of  beauty. 
That  she  was  jealous  of  her  fascinating  rival 
there  is  little  doubt,  but  that  she  was  exas- 
perated at  her  pretensions  and  at  the  au- 
dacious plottings  against  her  life  and  throne 
is  not  strange.  In  fact  we  wonder  that, 
with  her  imperious  temper,  she  so  long  hesi- 
tated to  strike  the  fatal  blow. 

Whether  Mary  committed  the  dark  crimes 


A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.  93 

attributed  to  her  or  not,  we  do  not  know. 
But  we  do  know,  that  after  the  murder  of 
her  wretched  husband,  Lord  Darnley,  (her 
cousin,  Henry  Stuart),  she  quickly  married 
the  man  to  whom  the  deed  was  directly 
traced.  Her  marriage  with  Both  well  was 
her  undoing.  Scotland  was  so  indignant 
at  the  act,  that  she  took  refuge  in  England, 
only  to  fall  into  Elizabeth's  hands. 

Mary  Stuart  had  once  audaciously  said, 
"  the  reason  her  cousin  did  not  marry  was 
because  she  would  not  lose  the  power  of 
compelling  men  to  make  love  to  her."  Per- 
haps the  memory  of  this  jest  made  it  easier 
to  sign  the  fatal  paper  in  1587. 

When  we  read  of  Mary's  irresistible 
charm,  of  her  audacity,  her  cunning,  her 
genius  for  diplomacy  and  statecraft,  far 
exceeding  Elizabeth's — when  we  read  of  all 
this  and  think  of  the  blood  of  the  Guises  in 
her  veins,  and  the  precepts  of  Catharine  de 
Medici  in  her  heart,  we  realize  what  her 
usurpation  would  have  meant  for  England, 
and  feel  that  she  was  a  menace  to  the  State, 
and  justly  incurred  her  fate.  Then  again, 
when  we  hear  of  her  gentle  patience  in  her 


94         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

long  captivity,  her  prayers  and  piety,  and  her 
sublime  courage  when  she  walked  through 
the  Hall  at  Fotheringay    Castle,   and  laid 
her  beautiful  head  on  the  block  as  on  a  pil- 
low, we  are  melted  to  pity,  and  almost  re- 
volted at  the  act.     It  is  difficult  to  be  just, 
with  such  a  lovely  criminal,  unless  one  is 
made  of  such  stern  stuff  as  was  John  Knox. 
The  son  of  Mary  by  Henry  Stuart  (Lord 
Darnley)  was  James  \^I.  of  Scotland.     His 
pretensions  to  the  English  throne  were  now 
seemingly   forever  at  rest.    But  Philip  of 
Spain    thought    the    time    propitious    for 
his  own  ambitious  purposes,  and  sent  an 
Armada  (fleet)  which  approached  the  Coast 
in  the  form  of  a  great  Crescent,  one  mile 
across.     The   little   English  "seadogs,"  not 
much   larger   than  small   pleasure  yachts, 
were  led  by  Sir  Francis  Drake.     They  wor- 
ried the  ponderous  Spanish  ships,  and  then. 
Bending  burning   boats  in  amongst   them, 
soon  spoiled  the  pretty  crescent.     The  fleet 
scattered  along  the  Northern  Coast,  where  it 
was  overtaken  by  a  frightful  storm,  and  the 
winds  and  the  waves  completed  the  victory, 
almost  annihilating  the  entire  "Armada." 


A   SHORT  HISrORy   OF  ENGLAND.         95 

England  was  great  and  glorious.  The 
revolution,  religious,  social  and  political, 
had  ploughed  and  harrowed  the  surface 
which  had  been  fertilized  with  the  '*New 
Learning,"  and  the  harvest  was  rich. 
While  all  Europe  was  devastated  by  relig- 
ious wars  there  arose  in  Protestant  England 
such  an  era  of  peace  and  prosperity,  with 
all  the  conditions  of  living  so  improved  that 
the  dreams  of  Sir  Thomas  More's  "  Utopia" 
seemed  almost  realized.  The  new  culture 
was  everywhere.  England  was  garlanded 
with  poetry,  and  lighted  by  genius,  such 
as  the  world  has  not  seen  since,  and  may 
never  see  again.  The  name  of  Francis 
Bacon  was  sufficient  to  adorn  an  age,  and 
that  of  Shakespeare  alone,  enough  to  illu- 
mine a  century.  Elizabeth  did  not  create 
the  glory  of  the  "Elizabethan  Age,"  but 
she  did  create  the  peace  and  social  order 
from  which  it  sprang. 

If  this  Queen  ever  loved  any  one  it  was 
the  Earl  of  Leicester,  the  man  who  sent  his 
lovely  wife,  Amy  Robsart,  to  a  cruel  death 
in  the  delusive  hope  of  marrying  a  Queen. 
We  are  unwilling  to  harbor  the  suspicion 


96         A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

that  she  was  accessory  to  this  deed ;  and  yet 
we  cannot  forget  that  she  was  the  daughter 
of  Henry  VIII. ! — and  sometimes  wonder  if 
the  memory  of  a  crime  as  black  as  Mary's 
haunted  her  sad  old  age,  when  sated  with 
pleasures  and  triumphs,  lovers  no  more 
whispering  adulation  in  her  ears,  and  mir- 
rors banished  from  her  presence,  she  silently 
waited  for  the  end. 

She  died  in  the  year  1603,  and  succumb- 
ing to  the  irony  of  fate,— and  possibly  as 
an  act  of  reparation  for  the  fatal  paper 
signed  in  1687,— she  named  the  son  of  Mary 
Stuart,  James  VI.  of  Scotland,  her  successor, 
—James  I.  of  England. 


CHAPTER   Vm 

The  House  of  Stuart  had  peacefully 
reached  the  long  coveted  throne  of  England 
in  the  j^erson  of  a  most  unkiugly  King. 
Gross  in  appearance  and  vulgar  in  manners, 
James  had  none  of  the  royal  attributes  of 
his  mother.  A  great  deal  of  knowledge  had 
been  crammed  into  a  very  small  mind. 
Conceited,  vain,  pedantic,  headstrong,  he 
set  to  work  with  the  confidence  of  ignorance 
to  carry  out  his  undigested  views  upon  all 
subjects,  reversing  at  almost  every  point 
the  policy  of  his  great  predecessor.  Where 
she  with  supreme  tact  had  loosened  the 
screws  so  that  the  great  authority  vested  in 
her  might  not  press  too  heavily  upon  the 
nation,  he  tightened  them.  Where  she 
bowed  her  imperious  will  to  that  of  the 
Commons,  this  puny  tyrant  insolently  defied 
it,  and  swelling  with  sense  of  his  own  great- 


qS         a   short  history  of  ENGLAND. 

ness,  claimed  "Divine  right"  for  Kingship 
and  demanded  that  his  people  should  say 
"the  King  can  do  no  wrong,"  "to  question 
his  authority  is  to  question  that  of  God." 
If  he  ardently  supported  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, it  was  because  he  was  its  head.  The 
Catholic  who  would  have  turned  the  Church 
authority  over  again  to  the  Pope,  and  the 
" Puritans"  who  resisted  the  "Popish  prac- 
tices" of  the  Eeformed  Church  of  England, 
were  equally  hateful  to  him,  for  one  and 
the  same  reason ;  they  were  each  aiming  to 
diminish  his  authority. 

When  the  Puritans  brought  to  him  a  peti- 
tion signed  by  800  clergymen,  praying  that 
they  be  not  compelled  to  wear  the  surplice, 
nor  make  the  sign  of  the  cross  at  baptism — • 
he  said  they  were  "vipers,"  and  if  they  did 
not  submit  to  the  authority  of  the  Bishops 
in  such  matters  "they  should  be  harried  out 
of  the  land.''  In  the  persecution  implied 
by  this  threat,  a  large  body  of  Puritans  es- 
caped to  Holland  with  their  families,  and 
thence  came  that  band  of  heroic  men  and 
women  on  the  "MayHower,"  landing  at  a 
point  on  the  American  Coast  which  they 


A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.         99 

called  "Plymouth"  (1620).  A  few  English- 
men  had  in  1607  settled  in  Jamestown,  Vir- 
ginia. These  two  colonies  contained  the 
germ  of  the  future  "United  States  of 
America." 

The  persecution  of  the  Catholics  led  to 
a  plot  to  blow  up  Parliament  House  at  a 
time  when  the  King  was  present,  thinking 
thus  at  one  stroke  to  get  rid  of  a  usurping 
tyrant,  and  of  a  House  of  Commons  which 
was  daily  becoming  more  and  more  infected 
with  Puritanism.  The  discovery  of  this 
"Guy  Fawkes  gunpowder  plot,"  prevented 
its  consummation,  and  immensely  strength* 
ened  Puritan  sentiment. 

The  keynote  of  Elizabeth's  foreign  policy 
had  been  hostility  to  Spain,  that  Catholic 
stronghold,  and  an  unwavering  adherence  to 
Protestant  Europe.  James  saw  in  that 
great  and  despotic  government  the  most 
suitable  friend  for  such  a  great  King  as 
himself.  He  proposed  a  marriage  between 
his  son  Charles  and  the  Infanta,  daughter 
of  the  King  of  Spain,  making  abject  promises 
of  legislation  in  his  Kingdom  favorable  to 
the  Catholics;  and  when  an  indignant  House 


loo       A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

of  Commons  protested  against  the  marriage, 
they  were  insolently  reprimanded  for  med- 
dling with  things  which  did  not  concern 
them,  and  were  sent  home,  not  to  be  recalled 
again  until  the  King's  necessities  for  money 
compelled  him  to  summon  them. 

During  the  early  part  of  his  reign  the 
people  seem  to  have  been  paralyzed  and 
speechless  before  his  audacious  pretensions. 
Great  courtiers  were  fawning  at  his  feet 
listening  to  his  pedantic  wisdom,  and  hu- 
moring his  theory  of  the  "Divine  right"  of 
hereditary  Kingship.  And  alas! — that  we 
have  to  say  it — Francis  Bacon  (his  Chancel- 
lor), with  intellect  towering  above  his  cen- 
tury,— was  his  obsequious  servant  and  tool, 
uttering  not  one  protest  as  one  after  another 
the  liberties  of  the  people  were  trampled 
upon! 

But  this  Spanish  marriage  had  aroused  a 
spirit  before  which  a  wiser  man  than  James 
would  have  trembled.  He  was  standing 
midway  between  two  scaffolds,  that  of  his 
mother  (ISSY),  and  his  son  (1G49).  Every 
blow  he  struck  at  the  liberties  of  England 
cut  deep  into  the  foundation  of  his  throne. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.        ici 

And  when  he  violated  the  law  of  the  land  by 
the  imposition  of  taxes,  without  the  sanc- 
tion of  his  Parliament,  he  had  "sowed  the 
wind"  and  the  "whirlwind,"  which  was  to 
break  on  his  son's  head  was  inevitable. 
Popular  indignation  began  to  be  manifest, 
and  Puritan  members  of  the  Commons  began 
to  use  language  the  import  of  which  could 
not  be  mistaken.  Bacon  was  disgraced;  his 
crime, — while  ostensibly  the  "taking  of 
bribes," — was  in  reality  his  being  the  servile 
tool  of  the  King. 

In  reviewing  the  acts  of  this  reign  we  see 
a  foolish  Sovereign  ruled  by  an  intriguing 
adventurer  whom  he  created  Duke  of  Buck- 
ingham, We  see  him  foiled  in  his  attempt  to 
link  the  fate  of  England  with  that  of  Cath- 
olic Europe ; — sacrificing  Sir  Walter  Ealeigh 
because  he  had  given  offense  to  Spain,  the 
country  whose  friendship  he  most  desired. 
We  see  numberless  acts  of  folly,  and  but 
three  which  we  can  commend.  James  did 
authorize  and  promote  the  translation  of 
the  Bible  which  has  been  in  use  until  to- 
day. He  named  his  double  Kingdom  of 
England    and    Scotland   "Great    Britain." 


I02       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

These  two  acts,  together  with  his  death  in 
1625,  meet  with  our  entire  approval. 

Charles  I. ,  son  of  James,  was  at  least  one 
thing  which  his  father  was  not.  He  was  a 
gentleman.  Had  it  not  been  his  misfor- 
tune to  inherit  a  crown,  his  scholarly  refine- 
ments and  exquisite  tastes,  his  irreproach- 
able morals,  and  his  rectitude  in  the  per- 
sonal relations  of  life,  might  have  won  him 
only  esteem  and  honor.  But  these  qualities 
belonged  to  Charles  Stuart  the  gentleman. 
Charles  the  King  was  imperious,  false,  ob- 
stinate, blind  to  the  conditions  of  his  time, 
and  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  his  people. 
Every  step  taken  during  his  reign  led  him 
nearer  to  its  fatal  consummation. 

No  family  in  Europe  ever  grasped  at 
power  more  unscrupulously  than  the  Guises 
in  France.  They  were  cruel  and  remorseless 
in  its  pursuit.  It  was  the  warm  southern 
blood  of  her  mother  which  was  Mary 
Stuart's  ruin.  She  was  a  Guise, — and  so 
was  her  son  James  I. — and  so  was  Charles 
I.,  her  grandson.  There  was  despotism  and 
tyranny  in  their  blood.  Their  very  natures 
made  it  impossible  that  they  should  com- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.        103 

prehend  the  Anglo-Saxon  ideal  of  civil  lib- 
erty. 

Who  can  tell  what  might  have  been  the 
course  of  History,  if  England  had  been  ruled 
by  English  Kings,  which  it  has  not  been 
since  the  Conquest.  With  every  royal  mar- 
riage there  is  a  fresh  infusion  of  foreign 
blood  drawn  from  fountains  not  always  the 
purest, — until  after  centuries  of  such  dilu- 
tions, the  royal  line  has  less  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  in  it  than  any  ancestral  line  in  the 
Kingdom. 

The  odious  Spanish  marriage  had  been 
abandoned  and  Charles  had  married  Henri- 
etta, sister  of  Louis  XIII.  of  France. 

The  subject  of  religion  was  the  burning 
one  at  that  time.  It  soon  became  apparent 
that  the  new  King's  personal  sympathies 
leaned  as  far  as  his  position  permitted  to- 
ward Catholicism.  The  Church  of  England 
under  its  new  Primate,  Archbishop  Laud, 
was  being  drawn  farther  away  from  Prot- 
estantism and  closer  to  Papacy ;  while  Laud 
in  order  to  secure  Royal  protection  advocated 
the  absolutism  of  the  King,  saying  that 
James  in  his  theory  of  "Divine  right"  had 


I04       A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  EXCLAND. 

been  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  thus  turn- 
ing religion  into  an  engine  of  attack  upon 
English  liberties.  Laud's  ideal  was  a  puri- 
fied Catholicism — retaining  auricular  con- 
fession, prayers  for  the  dead,  the  Eeal 
Presence  in  the  Sacrament,  genuflexions 
and  crucifixes,  all  of  which  were  odious  to 
Puritans  and  Presbyterians.  He  had  a  bold, 
narrow  mind,  and  recklessly  threw  himself 
against  the  religious  instincts  of  the  time. 
The  same  pulpit  from  which  was  read  a 
proclamation  ordering  that  the  Sabbath  be 
treated  as  a  holiday,  and  not  a  Holy-day, 
was  also  used  to  tell  the  jDeople  that  resist- 
ance to  the  King's  will  was  "Eternal  dam- 
nation." 

This  made  the  Puritans  seem  the  defend- 
ers of  the  liberties  of  the  country,  and  drew 
hosts  of  conservative  Churchmen,  such  as 
Pym,  to  their  side,  although  not  at  all  in 
sympathy  with  a  religious  fanaticism  which 
condemned  innocent  pleasures,  and  all  the 
things  which  adorn  life,  as  mere  devices  of 
the  devil.  Such  were  the  means  by  which 
the  line  was  at  last  sharply  drawn.  The 
Church    of  England   and   tyranny  on   one 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       105 

side,  and  Puritanism  and  liberty  on  the 
other. 

But  there  was  one  thing  which  at  this 
moment  was  of  deeper  interest  to  the  King 
than  religion.  He  wanted, — he  must  have, 
— money.  Religion  and  money  are  the  two 
things  upon  which  the  fate  of  nations  has 
oftenest  hung.  These  two  dangerous  fac- 
tors were  both  present  now,  and  they  were 
going  to  make  history  very  fast. 

On  account  of  a  troublesome  custom  pre- 
vailing in  his  Kingdom,  Charles  must  first 
summon  his  Parliament,  and  they  must 
grant  the  needed  supplies.  His  father  had 
by  the  discovery  of  the  theory  of  "Divine 
right,"  prepared  the  way  to  throw  off  these 
Parliamentary  trammels.  But  that  could 
only  be  reached  by  degrees.  So  Parliament 
was  summoned.  It  had  no  objection  to 
voting  the  needed  subsidies,  but, — the  King 
must  first  promise  certain  reforms,  political 
and  religious,  and — dismiss  his  odious  Min- 
ister Buckingham. 

Charles,  indignant  at  this  outrage,  dis- 
solved the  body,  and  appealed  to  the  country 
for  a  loan.      The    same  reply  came  from 


I06        A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

every  quarter.  "  We  will  gladly  lend  the 
money,  but  it  must  be  done  through  Parlia- 
ment." The  King  was  thoroughly  aroused. 
If  the  loan  will  not  be  voluntary,  it  must 
be  forced.  A  tax  was  levied,  fines  and  pen- 
alties for  its  resistance  meted  out  by  sub- 
servient judges. 

John  Hampden  was  one  of  the  earliest 
victims.  His  means  were  ample,  the  sum 
was  small,  but  his  manhood  was  great. 
'•Kot  one  farthing,  if  it  cost  me  my  life," 
was  his  reply  as  he  sat  in  the  prison  at  Gate 
House. 

The  supply  did  not  meet  the  King's  de- 
mand. Overwhelmed  with  debt  and  shame 
and  rage,  he  was  obliged  again  to  resort  to 
the  hated  means.  Parliament  was  sum- 
moned. The  Commons,  with  memory  of 
recent  outrages  in  their  hearts,  were  more 
determined  than  before.  The  members 
drew  up  a  ^^ Petition  of  Right,^^  which  was 
simply  a  reaffirmation  of  the  inviolability  of 
the  rights  of  person,  of  property  and  of 
speech — a  sort  of  second  "Magna  Charta." 

They   resolutely  and  calmly  faced   their 
King,   the    "Petition"    in    one    hand,    the 


A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.        107 

granted  subsidies  in  the  other.  For  a  while 
he  defied  tliem ;  but  the  judges  were  whis- 
pering in  his  ear  that  the  "  Petition"  would 
not  be  binding  upon  him,  and  Buckingham 
was  urging  him  to  yield.  Perhaps  it  was 
Charles  Stuart  the  gentleman  who  hesi- 
tated to  receive  money  in  return  for  solemn 
promises  which  he  did  not  intend  to  keep ! 
But  Charles  the  King  signed  the  paper,  v/hich 
seven  judges  out  of  twelve,  in  the  highest 
court  of  the  realm,  were  going  to  pro- 
nounce invalid  because  the  King's  power 
was  beyond  the  reach  of  Parliiiment.  It 
was  inherent  in  him  as  King,  and  bestowed 
by  God.  A7iy  infringement  upon  his  pre- 
rogative  by  Act  of  Parliament  ivas  void ! 

With  king  so  false,  and  with  justice  so 
polluted  at  its  fountain,  what  hope  was 
there  for  the  people  but  in  Eevolution? 

From  the  tyranny  of  the  Church  under 
Laud,  a  way  was  opened  when,  in  1629, 
Charles  granted  a  Charter  to  the  Colony  of 
Massachusetts.  With  a  quiet,  stern  enthu- 
siasm the  hearts  of  men  turned  tow^ard  that 
refuge  in  America.  Not  men  of  broken  for- 
tunes, adventurers,  and  crimmals,  but  own- 


Io8       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

ers  of  large  landed  estates,  professional 
men,  some  of  the  best  in  the  land,  who 
abandoned  home  and  comfort  to  face  intol- 
erable hardships.  One  wrote,  "Vfe  are 
weaned  from  the  delicate  milk  of  our 
Mother  England  and  do  not  mind  these 
trials."  As  the  pressure  increased  under 
Laud,  the  stream  toward  the  West  increased 
in  volume;  so  that  in  ten  years  20,000  Eng- 
lishmen had  sought  religious  freedom  across 
the  sea,  and  had  founded  a  Colony  which, 
stra-nge  to  say, — under  the  influence  of  an 
intense  religious  sentiment, — became  itself  a 
Theocracy  and  a  new  tyranny,  although  one 
sternly  just  and  pure. 

The  dissolute,  worthless  Buckingham  had 
been  assassinated,  and  Charles  had  wept 
passionate  tears  over  his  dead  body.  But 
his  place  had  been  filled  by  one  far  better 
suited  to  the  King's  needs  at  a  time  when  he 
had  determined  not  again  to  recall  Parlia- 
ment, but  to  rule  without  it  until  resistance 
to  his  measures  had  ceased. 

It  was  with  no  sinister  purpose  of  estab- 
lishing a  despotism  such  as  a  stronger  man 
might  have  harbored,   that  he  made   this 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.        109 

resolve.  What  Charles  wanted  was  simply 
the  means  of  filling  his  exchequer;  and  if 
Parliament  would  not  give  him  that  except 
by  a  dicker  for  reforms,  and  humiliating 
pledges  which  he  could  not  keep,  why  then 
he  would  find  new  ways  of  raising  money 
without  them.  His  father  had  done  it  be- 
fore him,  he  had  done  it  himself.  With  no 
Commons  there  to  rate  and  insult  him,  it 
could  be  done  without  hindrance. 

He  was  not  grand  enough,  nor  base 
enough,  nor  was  he  rich  enough,  to  carry 
out  any  organized  design  upon  the  country. 
He  simply  wanted  money,  and  had  such 
blind  confidence  in  Kingship,  that  any  very 
serious  resistance  to  his  authority  did  not 
enter  his  dreams.  It  was  the  limitations  of 
his  intelligence  which  proved  his  ruin,  his 
inability  to  comprehend  a  new  condition  in 
the  spirit  of  his  people.  Elizabeth  would 
have  felt  it,  though  she  did  not  understand 
it,  and  would  have  loosened  the  screws, 
without  regard  for  her  personal  preferences, 
and  by  doing  it,  so  bound  the  people  to  her, 
that  her  policy  would  have  been  their 
policy.     Charles  was    as  wise   as    the   en- 


no       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

gineer  who  would  rivet  down  the  safety- 
valves  ! 

Sir  Thomas  Wentworth  (Earl  Strafford), 
who  had  taken  the  place  of  Buckingham, 
was  an  apostate  from  the  party  of  liberty. 
Disappointed  in  becoming  a  leader  in  the 
Commons  he  had  drawn  gradually  closer  to 
the  King,  who  now  leaned  upon  him  as  the 
vine  upon  the  oak. 

This  man's  ideal  was  to  build  up  in  Eng- 
land just  such  a  despotism  as  Richelieu  was 
building  in  France.  The  same  imperious 
temper,  the  same  invincible  will  and  admin- 
istrative genius,  marked  him  as  fitted  for  the 
work.  While  Charles  was  feebly  scheming 
for  revenue,  he  was  laying  large  and  com- 
prehensive plans  for  a  system  of  oppression, 
which  should  yield  the  revenue, — and  for 
Arsenals  and  Forts — and  a  standing  Army, 
and  a  rule  of  terror  which  should  hold  the 
nation  in  subjection  while  these  things  were 
preparing.  He  was  clear-sighted  enough  to 
see  that  "absolutism"  was  not  to  be  accom- 
plished by  a  system  of  reasoning.  He  would 
not  urge  it  as  a  dogma,  but  as  a  fact. 

The  "Star  Chamber,"  a  tribunal  for  the 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       in 

trying  of  a  certain  class  of  offences,  was 
brought  to  a  state  of  fresh  efficiency.  Its 
punishments  could  be  anything  this  side  of 
death.  A  clergyman  accused  of  speaking 
disrespectfully  of  Laud,  is  condemned  to 
pay  £5,000  to  the  King,  £300  to  the  ag- 
grieved Archbishop  himself,  one  side  of  his 
nose  is  to  be  slit,  one  ear  cut  off,  and  one 
cheek  branded.  The  next  week  this  to  be 
repeated  on  the  other  side,  and  then  fol- 
lowed by  imprisonment  subject  to  pleasure 
of  the  Court.  Another  who  has  written  a 
book  considered  seditious,  has  the  same  sen- 
tence carried  out,  only  varied  by  imprison- 
ment for  life. 

These  were  some  of  the  embellishments  of 
the  system  called  "Thorough,"  which  was 
carried  on  by  the  two  friends  and  confeder- 
ates. Laud  and  Strafford,  who  were  in  their 
pleasant  letters  to  each  other  all  the  time 
lamenting  that  the  power  of  the  "Star 
Chamber"  was  so  limited,  and  judges  so 
timid  I  Is  it  strange  that  the  plantation  in 
Massachusetts  had  fresh  recruits? 

But  the  more  serious  work  was  going  on 
under    Strafford's   vigorous    management. 


112        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

"Monopolies"  were  sold  once  more,  with  a 
fixed  duty  on  profits  added  to  the  price  of 
the  original  concession.  Every  article  in 
use  by  the  people  was  at  last  bought  up  by 
Monopolists,  who  were  compelled  to  add  to 
the  price  of  these  commodities,  to  compen- 
sate for  the  tax  they  must  pay  into  the 
King's  Treasury. 

"  Ship  Money^^  was  a  tax  supposably  for 
the  building  of  a  Navy,  for  which  there  was 
no  accounting  to  the  people,  the  amount 
and  frequency  of  the  levy  being  discretion- 
ary with  the  King.  It  was  always  possible 
and  imminent,  and  was  the  most  odious  of 
all  the  methods  adopted  for  wringing  money 
from  the  nation,  while  resistance  to  it,  as  to 
all  other  such  measures,  was  punished  by 
the  Star  Chamber  in  such  pleasant  fashion 
as  would  please  Strafford  and  Laud,  whose 
creatures  the  judges  were. 

Hampden,  as  before,  championed  the 
rights  of  the  people  in  his  own  person, 
going  to  prison  and  facing  death,  if  it  were 
necessary,  rather  than  pay  the  amount  of 
20  shillings.  But  that  the  taxes  were 
paid  by  the  people  is  evident,  for  so  success- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       113 

f  ul  was  this  scheme  of  revenue  that  many 
predicted  the  King  would  never  again  call 
a  Parliament.  What  would  be  the  need  of 
a  Parliament,  if  he  did  not  require  money? 
The  Royalists  were  pleased,  and  the  people 
were  wisely  patient,  knowing  that  such  a 
financial  fabric  must  fall  at  the  first  breath 
of  a  storm,  and  then  their  time  would 
come. 


CHAPTER    IX 

The  storm  came  in  the  form  of  a  war 
upon  Scotland,  to  enforce  the  established 
Church,  which  it  had  cast  out  "root  and 
branch"  for  the  Presbyterianism  which 
pleased  it.  The  Loyalists  were  alarmed  by 
rumors  that  Scotland  was  holding  treas- 
onable communication  with  her  old  ally, 
France;  and  after  an  interval  of  eleven 
years,  a  Parliament  was  summoned,  which 
was  destined  to  outlive  the  King. 

The  Commons  came  together  in  stern 
temper,  Pym  standing  promptly  at  the  Bar 
of  the  House  of  Lords  with  Strafford's  im- 
peachment for  High  Treason.  The  great 
Earl's  apologists  among  the  Lords,  his  own 
ingenious  and  powerful  pleadings,  the 
King's  entreaties  and  worthless  promises, 
all  were  in  vain. 

The  King  saw  the  whole  fabric  of  tyranny 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       11$ 

crumbling  before  his  eyes.  He  was  over- 
awed and  dared  not  refuse  his  signature  to 
the  fatal  paper.  It  is  said  that  as  Strafford 
passed  to  the  block,  Laud,  who  was  at  tho 
window  of  the  room  where  he  too  was  a 
prisoner,  fainted  as  his  old  companion  in 
cruelty  stopped  to  say  farewell  to  him. 

There  were  a  few  moments  of  silence, 
then,— a  wild  exultant  shout.  "His  head 
is  off— His  head  is  off." 

The  execution  of  the  Archbishop  swiftly 
followed,  then  the  abolition  of  the  Star 
Chamber,  and  of  the  High  Commission 
Court;  then  a  bill  was  passed  requiring 
that  Parliament  be  summoned  once  in  three 
years,  and  a  law  enacted  forbidding  its 
dissolution  except  by  its  otvn  consent. 

They  were  rapidly  nearing  the  conception 
that  Parliament  does  not  exist  by  sanction 
of  the  King,  but  the  King  by  sanction  of 
Parliament. 

What  could  be  done  with  a  King  whom 
no  promises  could  bind — who,  while  in  the 
act  of  giving  solemn  pledges  to  Parliament 
in  order  to  save  Strafford,  was  perfidiously 
planning  to  overawe  it  by  military  force? 


Il6       A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

The  attempted  arrest  of  Hampden,  Pym, 
and  three  other  leaders  was  part  of  this 
"Army  Plot,"  which  made  civil  war  inevi- 
table. The  trouble  had  resolved  itself  into 
a  deadly  conflict  between  King  and  Parlia- 
ment. If  he  resorted  to  arms,  so  must 
they. 

If  Hampden  stands  out  pre-eminent  as  the 
Champion  who  like  a  great  Gladiator  fought 
the  battle  of  civil  freedom,  Pym  is  no  less 
conspicuous  in  having  grasped  the  principles 
on  which  it  must  be  fought.  He  saw  that 
if  either  Crown  or  Parliament  must  go 
down,  better  for  England  that  it  should  be 
the  crown.  He  saw  also,  that  the  vital 
principle  in  Parliament  lay  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  If  the  King  refused  to  act  with 
them,  it  should  be  treated  as  an  abdication, 
and  Parliament  must  act  without  him,  and 
if  the  Lords  obstructed  reform,  then  they 
must  be  told  that  the  Commons  must  act 
alone,  rather  than  let  the  Kingdom  per- 
ish. 

This  was  the  theory  upon  which  the  fu- 
ture action  was  based.  Eevolutiouary  and 
without  precedent  it  has  since  been  accepted 


From  the  drawing  by  Seymour  Lucas. 

Cromwell  dissolving  the   Long   Parliament,  l653. 

Having  commanded  the  soldiers  to  dear  the  hall,  he  himself  went 
out  last,  and  ordered  the  doors  to  be  locked. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       117 

as  the  correct  construction  of  English  Con- 
stitutional principles. 

Better  would  it  have  heen  for  Charles 
had  he  let  the  ship  sail,  which  was  to  have 
borne  Hampden  and  Oliver  Cromwell  (cousin 
of  the  latter)  toward  the  "Valley  of  the 
Connecticut,"  When  he  gave  that  order, 
he  recalled  the  man  wlio  was  to  be  his  evil 
genius.  Cromwell  could  not  so  accurately 
have  defined  the  constitutional  right  of  his 
cause  as  Pym  had  done,  nor  make  himself 
its  adored  head  as  was  Hampden;  but  he 
had  a  more  compelling  genius  than  either. 
His  figure  stands  up  colossal  and  grim  away 
above  all  others  from  the  time  he  raised  his 
praying,  psalm-singing  army,  until  the  de- 
feat of  the  King's  forces  at  Naseby  (1645), 
the  flight  of  the  King  and  his  subsequent 
surrender. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Cromwell  began 
to  manifest  as  much  ability  as  a  political  as 
he  had  done  as  a  military  leader.  Hamp- 
den had  fallen  on  the  battlefield,  Pym  was 
dead,  he  was  virtual  head  of  the  cause. 
Perhaps  it  needed  just  such  a  terrible,  un- 
compromising  instrument,    to   carry   Eng- 


Il8       A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

land  over  such  a  crisis  as  was  before  her. 
Not  overscrupulous  about  means,  no  trou- 
blesome theories  about  Church  or  State— no 
reverence  for  anything  but  God  and  "the 
Gospel." 

When  Parhament  halted  and  hesitated 
at  the  last  about  the  trial  of  the  King,  it 
was  the  iron  hand  of  Cromwell  which 
strangled  opposition,  by  placing  a  body  of 
troops  at  the  door,  and  excluding  140  doubt- 
ful members.  A  Parliament,  with  the 
House  of  Lords  effaced,  and  with  140  ob- 
structing members  excluded,  leaving  only  a 
small  body  of  men  of  the  same  mind,  sus- 
tained by  the  moral  sentiment  of  a  Crom- 
wellian  Army, — can  scarcely  be  called  a 
Representative  body ;  nor  can  it  be  consid- 
ered competent  to  create  a  Court  for  the 
trial  of  a  King!  It  was  only  justifiable  as 
a  last  and  desperate  measure  of  self- 
defence. 

Charles  wins  back  somG  of  our  sympathy 
and  esteem  by  dying  like  a  brave  man  and 
a  gentleman.  He  conducted  himself  with 
marvellous  dignity  and  self  -  possession 
throughout  the  trial,   and   at   the  end  of 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       119 

seven  days,  laid  his  head  upon  the  block 
in  front  of  his  royal  palace  of  Whitehall. 

That  small  body  of  men,  calling  itself  the 
"House  of  Commons,"  declared  England  a 
"Commonwealth,"  which  was  to  be  gov- 
erned without  any  King  or  House  of  Lords. 
Cromwell  was  "Lord  Protector  of  England, 
Scotland  and  Ireland."  He  scorned  to  be 
called  King,  but  no  King  was  ever  more 
absolute  in  authority.  It  was  a  righteous 
tyranny,  replacing  a  vicious  one. 

There  was  no  longer  an  eager  hand  dip- 
ping into  the  pockets  of  the  people,  com- 
pelling the  poor  to  share  his  scanty  earn- 
ings with  the  King.  There  was  safety,  and 
there  was  prosperity.  But  there  was  rage 
and  detestation,  as  Cromwell's  soldiers  with 
gibes  and  jeers,  hewed  and  hacked  at  ven- 
erable altars  and  pictures,  and  insulted  the 
religious  sentiment  of  one-half  the  people. 
Empty  niches,  mutilated  carvings,  and 
fragments  of  stained  glass,  from 

"Windows  richly  dight, 
Casting  a  dim  religious  light,  " 

show  us  to-day  the  track  of  those  profane 
fanatics. 


I20       A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

When  the  remnant  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons calling  itself  a  Parliament  was  not 
alert  enough  in  its  obedience,  Cromwell 
marched  into  the  Hall  with  a  company  of 
musketeers,  and  callmg  them  names  neither 
choice  nor  flattering,  ordered  them  to  "get 
out,"  then  locked  the  door,  and  put  the  key 
into  his  pocket.  Such  was  the  "dissolu- 
tion" of  a  Parliament  which  had  been  strong 
enough  to  overthrow  a  Government,  and 
to  send  a  King  to  the  Scaffold !  This  might 
be  fittingly  described  as  a  personal  Govern- 
ment! 

He  was  loved  by  none  but  the  Army. 
There  was  no  strong  current  of  popular  sen- 
timent to  uphold  him  as  he  carried  out  his 
arbitrary  purposes;  no  engines  of  cruelty 
to  fortify  his  authority;  no  "Star  Cham- 
ber" to  enforce  his  order.  Men  were  not 
being  nailed  by  the  ears  to  the  pillory,  nor 
mutilated  and  branded,  for  resisting  his 
will.  But  the  spectacle  was  for  that  reason 
all  the  more  astonishing:  a  great  nation, 
full  of  rage,  hate  and  bitterness,  but  silent 
and  submissive  under  the  spell  of  one  domi- 
nating personality. 


A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.        1 21 

He  had  no  experience  in  dii)lomatic 
usages,  no  skilled  ministers  to  counsel  and 
warn,  but  by  his  foreign  policy  he  made  him- 
self the  terror  of  Europe;  Spain,  France, 
and  the  United  Provinces  courting  his  friend- 
ship, while  Protestantism  had  protection  at 
home  and  abroad. 

That  the  man  who  did  this  had  a  com- 
manding genius,  all  must  be  agreed.  But 
whether  he  was  the  incarnation  of  evil,  or 
of  righteousness,  must  ever  remain  in  dis- 
pute. We  shall  never  know  whether  or  not 
his  death,  in  1658,  cut  short  a  career  which 
might  have  passed  from  a  justifiable  to  an 
unjustifiable  tyranny. 

A  fabric  held  up  by  one  sustaining  hand, 
must  fall  when  that  hand  is  withdrawn. 
Cromwell  left  none  who  could  support  his 
burden.  Charles  II.,  who  had  been  more 
than  once  foiled  in  trying  to  get  in  by  the 
back  door  of  his  father's  kingdom,  was  now 
invited  to  enter  by  the  front,  and  amid 
shouts  of  joy  was  placed  on  the  throne. 


CHAPTER  X 

Time  brings  its  revenges.  The  instinct 
for  beauty,  and  for  joy  and  gladness,  had 
been  for  twenty-one  years  repressed  by 
harshly  administered  Puritanism.  There 
was  a  thrill  of  delight  in  greeting  a  gra- 
cious, smiling  king,  who  would  hft  the 
spell  of  gloom  from  the  nation.  Charles 
did  this,  more  fully  than  was  expected. 
Never  was  the  law  of  reaction  more  fully 
demonstrated!  The  Court  was  profligate, 
and  the  age  licentious.  The  reign  of  Charles 
was  an  orgy.  When  he  needed  more  money 
for  his  pleasures,  he  bargained  with  Louis 
XIV.  to  join  that  king  in  a  war  upon  Prot- 
estantism in  Holland,  for  the  consideration 
of  £200,000 ! 

We  wonder  how  he  dared  thus  to  goad 
and  prod  the  British  Lion,  which  had  de- 
voured his  Father.     But  that  animal  had 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       123 

grown  patient  since  the  Protectorate.  Eng- 
land treated  Clmrles  like  a  spoiled  child 
whose  follies  entertained  her,  and  whose  mis- 
demeanors she  had  not  the  heart  to  punish. 

The  "Roundheads,"  who  had  trampled 
upon  the  "Cavaliers,"  were  now  trampled 
upon  in  return.  But  even  at  such  a  time  as 
this  the  liberties  of  the  people  were  expand- 
ing. The  Act  of  "  Habeas  Corpus"  forever 
prevented  imprisonment,  without  showing 
in  Court  just  cause  for  the  detention  of  the 
prisoner. 

The  House  of  Stuart,  those  children  of 
the  Guises,  was  always  Catholic  at  heart, 
and  Charles  was  at  no  pains  to  conceal  his 
preferences.  A  wave  of  Catholicism  alarmed 
the  people,  who  tried  to  divert  the  succes- 
sion from  James,  the  brother  of  the  King, 
who  was  extreme  and  fanatical  in  his  devo- 
tion to  the  Church  of  Rome.  But  in  16S5, 
the  Masks  and  routs  and  revels  were  inter- 
rupted. The  pleasure-loving  Charles,  who 
"  had  never  said  a  foolish  thing,  and  never 
done  a  wise  one,"  lay  dead  in  his  palace  at 
Whitehall,  and  James  II.  was  King  of  Eng- 
land. 


124       A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

Three  names  have  illumined  this  reign,  in 
other  respects  so  inglorious.  In  1666  New- 
ton discovered  the  law  of  gravitation  and 
created  a  new  theory  of  the  Universe.  In 
1667  Milton  published  "Paradise  Lost,"  and 
in  1672  Bunyan  gave  to  the  world  his  al- 
legory, "Pilgrim's  Progress."  There  was 
no  inspiration  to  genius  in  the  cause  of 
King  and  Cavaliers.  But  the  stern  prob- 
lems of  Puritanism  touched  two  souls  with 
the  divine  afflatus.  The  sacred  Epic  of 
Milton,  sublime  in  treatment  as  m  concep- 
tion, must  ever  stand  unique  and  solitary 
in  literature;  while  "Pilgrim's  Progress," 
in  plain  homely  dish  served  the  same  heav- 
enly food.  The  theme  of  both  was  the 
problem  of  sin  and  redemption  with  which 
the  Puritan  soul  was  gloomily  struggling. 

The  reign  of  James  II.  was  the  last  effort 
of  royal  despotism  to  recover  its  own.  He 
tried  to  recall  the  right  of  Habeas  Corpus; 
— to  efface  Parliament — and  to  overawe  the 
Clergy,  while  insidiously  striving  to  estab- 
lish Papacy  as  the  religion  of  the  Kingdom. 
Chief  Justice  Jeffries,  that  most  brutal  of 
men,  was  his  efficient  aid,  and  boasted  that 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       1 25 

he  had  in  the  service  of  James  hanged  more 
traitors  than  all  his  predecessors  since  the 
Conquest ! 

The  names  Whig  and  Tory  had  come 
into  existence  in  this  struggle.  Whig 
standing  for  the  opponents  to  Catholic  dom- 
ination, and  Tory  for  the  upholders  of  the 
King.  But  so  flagrantly  was  the  Catholic 
policy  of  James  conducted,  that  his  up- 
holders were  few.  In  three  years  from  his 
accession,  Whig  and  Tory  alike  were  so 
alarmed,  that  they  secretly  sent  an  invita- 
tion to  the  King's  son-in-law,  Wilham, 
Prince  of  Orange,  to  come  and  accept  the 
Crown. 

William  responded  at  once,  and  when  he 
landed  with  1-1,000  men,  James,  paralyzed, 
powerless,  unable  to  raise  a  force  to  meet 
him,  abandoned  his  throne  without  a  strug- 
gle and  took  refuge  in  France. 

The  throne  was  formally  declared  vacant 
and  William  and  Mary  his  wife  were  in- 
vited to  rule  jointly  the  Kingdom  of  Eng- 
land, Ireland  and  Scotland  (1^589). 

The  House  of  Stuart,  which  seems  to  have 
brought  not  one  single  virtue  to  the  throne, 


126       A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

was  always  secretly  conspiring  with  Catholi- 
cism in  Europe.  Louis  XIV.,  as  the  head 
of  Catholic  Europe  at  this  time,  was  the 
natural  protector  of  the  dethroned  King. 
His  aim  had  long  been,  to  bring  England 
into  the  Catholic  European  alliance,  and,  of 
course,  if  possible,  to  make  it  a  dependency 
of  France.  A  conspiracy  with  Louis  to  ac- 
complish this  end  occupied  England's  exiled 
King  during  the  rest  of  his  life. 

But  European  Protestantism  had  for  its 
leader  the  man  who  now  sat  upon  the 
throne  of  England.  In  fact  he  had  prob- 
ably accepted  that  throne  in  order  to  further 
his  larger  plans  for  defeating  the  expanding 
power  of  Louis  XIV.  in  Europe.  Broad  and 
comprehensive  in  his  statesmanship,  noble 
and  just  in  character,  an  able  military 
leader,  England  was  safe  in  his  strong 
hand.  Conspiracies  were  put  down,  one 
French  army  after  another,  with  the  des- 
picable James  at  its  head,  was  driven  back; 
the  purpose  at  one  time  being  to  establish 
James  at  the  head  of  an  independent  King- 
dom in  Catholic  Ireland.  But  that  would- 
be  King  of  Ireland  was  humiliated  and  sent 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       1 27 

back  to  France  by  the  battle  of  Boyne 
(1690). 

As  important  as  was  all  this,  things  of 
even  greater  moment  were  going  on  in  the 
life  of  England  at  this  time.  As  a  wise 
householder  employs  the  hours  of  sunshine 
to  repair  the  leaks  revealed  by  the  storm, 
just  so  Parliament  now  set  about  strength- 
ening and  riveting  the  weak  spots  revealed 
by  the  storms  which  had  swept  over  Eng- 
land. 

What  the '^ Magna  Charta''^  and  '^Petition 
of  RicjliV  had  asserted  in  a  general  way, 
was  now  by  the  ^^ Bill  of  Rights"  estab- 
lished by  specific  enactments,  which  one 
after  another  declared  what  the  King 
should  and  what  he  should  not  do.  One 
of  these  Acts  touched  the  very  central 
nerve  of  English  freedom. 

If  religion  and  money  are  the  two  impor- 
tant factors  in  the  life  of  a  nation,  it  is 
money  upon  which  its  life  from  day  to  day 
depends!  A  Government  can  exist  without 
money  about  as  long  as  a  man  without  air ! 
So  the  act  which  gave  to  the  House  of 
Commons  exclusive  power  to  grant  supplies, 


128       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

and  also  to  determine  to  what  use  they 
shall  be  applied,  transferred  the  real  au- 
thority to  the  people,  whose  will  the  Com- 
mons express. 

The  struggle  between  the  Crown  and 
Parliament  ends  with  this,  and  the  theory 
of  Pym  is  vindicated.  The  Sovereign  and 
the  House  of  Lords  from  that  time  could 
no  more  take  money  from  the  Treasury  of 
England,  than  from  that  of  France.  Hence- 
forth there  can  be  no  differences  between 
King  and  people.  They  must  be  friends.  A 
Ministry  v/hich  forfeits  the  friendship  of  the 
Commons,  cannot  stand  an  hour,  and  sup- 
plies will  stop  until  they  are  again  in  accord. 
In  other  words,  the  Government  of  England 
had  become  a  Government  of  the  people. 

William  regarded  these  enactments  as 
evidence  of  a  lack  of  confidence  in  him. 
Conscious  of  his  own  magnanimous  aims, 
of  his  power  and  his  purpose  to  serve  Eng- 
land as  she  had  not  been  served  before,  he 
felt  hurt  and  wounded  at  fetters  which 
had  not  been  placed  upon  such  Kings  as 
Charles  I.  and  his  sons.  We  wonder  that 
a  man  so  exalted  and  so  superior,  did  not 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       129 

see  that  it  was  for  future  England  that 
these  laws  were  framed,  for  a  time  when 
perhaps  a  Prince  not  generous,  and  nohle, 
and  pure  should  be  upon  the  throne. 

William  was  silent,  grave,  cold,  reserved 
almost  to  sternness.  He  had  none  of  the 
qualities  which  awaken  personal  enthusi- 
asm. He  was  one  of  those  great  leaders 
who  are  worshipped  from  afar.  Besides,  it 
is  not  an  easy  task  to  rule  another's  house- 
hold. Benefits  however  great,  reforms 
however  wise,  are  sure  to  be  considered  an 
impertinence  by  some.  Then— there  might 
be  another  "Restoration,"  and  wary  ambi- 
tious nobles  were  cautiously  making  a  rec 
ord  which  would  not  unfit  them  for  its 
benefits  when  it  came.  He  lived  in  an 
atmosphere  of  conspiracy,  suspicion,  and 
loyalty  grudgingly  bestowed.  But  these 
were  only  the  surface  currents.  Anglo- 
Saxon  England  recognized  in  this  foreign 
King,  a  man  with  the  same  race  instincts, 
the  same  ideals  of  integrity,  honor,  justice 
and  personal  liberty,  as  her  own;  qualities 
possessed  by  few  of  her  native  sovereigns 
since  the  good  King  Alfred. 


130       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

The  expensive  war-s  carried  011  against 
James  aud  nis  confederate,  Louis  XIV., 
compelled  ioans  wmcii  were  the  begin  ^ 
ning  of  the  National  Debt.  That  and  the 
establishing  of  the  Bank  of  England,  form 
part  of  the  history  of  this  reign. 

In  1702  William  died,  and  Mary  having 
also  died  a  few  years  earlier,  the  succession 
passed  to  her  sister  Anne,  who  was  to  be 
the  last  SovereiKU  of  the  House  of  Stuart, 


CHAPTER    XI 

William's  policy  had  not  been  bounded  by 
his  Island  Kingdom,  It  included  the  cause 
of  Protestant  Europe.  An  apparently  in- 
vincible King  sat  on  the  throne  of  France, 
gradually  drawing  all  adjacent  Kingdoms 
into  his  dominion.  When  in  defiance  of 
past  pledges  he  placed  his  grandson  upon 
the  vacant  throne  of  Spain,  and  declared 
that  the  Pyrenees  should  exist  no  more, 
even  Catholic  Austria  revolted,  and  begin- 
ning to  fear  Louis  more  than  Protestantism, 
new  combinations  were  formed,  England 
still  holding  aloof,  and  striving  to  keep  out 
of  the  Alliance.  But  that  all-absorbing 
King  had  long  ago  fixed  his  eye  upon 
England  as  his  future  prey,  and  when 
he  refused  to  recognize  Anne  as  lawful 
Queen  and  declared  his  intention  of  plac- 
ing the  "  Pretender,"  son  of  King  James, 


132       A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

upon  the  throne,  there  could  be  no  more 
hesitation.  This  Jupiter  who  had  removed 
the  Pyrenees,  might  wipe  out  the  English 
Channel  too !  Hitherto  the  name  Whig  had 
stood  for  the  adherents  to  the  war  policy, 
and  Tory  for  its  opponents.  Now,  all  was 
changed.  Even  the  stupid  Anne  and  her 
Tory  friends  saw  that  William's  policy  must 
be  her  policy  if  she  would  keep  her  Kingdom. 

Fortunate  was  it  for  England,  and  for 
Europe  at  this  time  that  a  "Marlborough" 
had  climbed  to  distinction  by  a  slender,  and 
not  too  reputable  ladder.  This  man,  John 
Churchill,  who  a  few  years  ago  had  been 
unknown,  without  training,  almost  with- 
out education,  was  by  pure  genius  fitted  to 
become,  upon  the  death  of  William,  the 
guiding  spirit  of  the  Grand  Alliance. 

He  had  none  of  the  qualities  possessed  by 
William,  and  all  the  qualities  that  leader 
had  not.  He  had  no  moral  grandeur,  no 
stern  adherence  to  principles.  Whig  and 
Tory  were  alike  to  him,  and  he  followed 
whichever  seemed  to  lead  to  success,  and  to 
the  richest  rewards.  He  was  perfectly  sor- 
did in  his  aims,  invincible  in  his  good  na- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       133 

ture,  with  a  careless,  easy  bonhomie  which 
captured  the  hearts  of  Europeans,  who 
called  him  "the  handsome  Englishman." 
As  adroit  in  managing  men  as  armies,  as 
wise  in  planning  political  moves  as  cam- 
paigns, using  tact  and  diplomacy  as  effec- 
tually as  artillery,  he  assumed  the  whole 
direction  of  the  European  war;  managed 
every  negotiation,  planned  every  battle, 
and  achieved  its  great  and  overwhelming 
success. 

"Blenheim"  turned  the  tide  of  French 
victory,  and  broke  the  spell  of  Louis'  invin- 
cibility. The  loss  at  that  battle  was  some- 
thing more  than  men  and  fortresses.  It 
was pi'esfige,  and  that  self-confidence  which 
had  made  the  great  King  believe  that 
nothing  could  resist  his  purposes.  It  was 
a  new  sensation  for  him  to  bend  his  neck, 
and  to  say  that  he  acknowledged  Anne 
Queen  of  England. 

Marlborough  received  as  his  reward  the 
splendid  estate  upon  which  was  built  the 
palace  of  "Blenheim."  Then,  when  in  the 
sunshine  of  peace  England  needed  him  no 
more,  Anne   quarrelled  with  his  wife,  her 


134       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

adored  friend,  and  cast  him  aside  as  a  rusty 
sword  no  longer  of  use.  But  for  years  Eu- 
rope heard  the  song  "  Malbrook  s'en  va-t-en 
guerre,"  and  his  awe-inspiring  name  Vv'as 
used  to  frighten  children  in  France  and  in 
England. 

His  passionate  love  for  his  wife,  Sarah 
Churchill,  ran  like  a  golden  thread  of  ro- 
mance through  Marlborough's  stormy  ca- 
reer. On  the  eve  of  battle,  and  in  the  first 
flush  of  victory,  he  must  first  and  last  write 
her;  and  he  would  more  willingly  meet  20,- 
000  Frenchmen  than  his  wife's  displeasure! 
Indeed  Sarah  seems  to  have  waged  her  own 
battles  very  successfully  with  her  tongue, 
and  also  to  have  had  her  own  diplomatic 
triumphs.  Through  Anne's  infatuation  for 
her,  she  was  virtually  ruler  while  the  friend- 
ship lasted.  But  to  acquire  ascendancy  over 
Anne  was  not  much  of  an  achievement. 

It  is  said  that  there  was  but  one  duller 
person  than  the  Queen  in  her  Kingdom,  and 
that  was  the  royal  Consort,  George,  Prince 
of  Denmark.  Happy  was  it  for  England 
that  of  the  seventeen  children  born  into  this 
royal  household,  not  one  survived.    The  sue- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       135 

cession,  ill  the  absence  of  direct  heirs,  was 
pledged  to  George,  Elector  of  Hanover,  a 
remote  descendant  of  James  I. 

It  was  during  Anne's  reign  that  English 
literature  assumed  a  new  character.  The 
stately  and  classic  form  being  set  aside  for 
a  style  more  familiar,  and  which  concerned 
itself  with  the  affairs  of  everyday  life.  Let- 
ters shone  with  a  mild  splendor,  while 
Steele,  Sterne,  Swift,  Defoe  and  Fielding 
were  writing,  and  Addison's  "Spectator" 
was  on  every  breakfast-table. 

In  the  year  iTltt  Anne  died,  and  George 
I.,  of  the  House  of  Hanover,  was  King  of 
England,— an  England  which,  thanks  to  the 
great  soldier  and  Duke,  would  never  more 
be  molested  by  the  intriguing  designs  of  a 
French  King,  and  which  held  in  her  hand 
Gibraltar,  the  key  to  the  Mediterranean. 

King  George  I.  was  a  German  grandson 
of  Elizabeth,  sister  of  Charles  L  Deeply 
attached  to  his  own  Hanover,  this  stupid 
old  man  came  slowly  and  reluctantly  to  as- 
sume his  new  honors.  He  could  not  speak 
English;  and  as  he  smoked  his  long  pipe, 
his  homesick  soul  was  soothed  by  the  ladies 


136       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

of  his  Court,  who  cut  caricature  figures  out 
of  paper  for  his  amusement,  while  Eobert 
Walpole  relieved  him  of  affairs  of  State.  As 
ignorant  of  the  politics  of  England  as  of  its 
language,  Walpole  selected  the  King's  Min- 
isters and  determined  the  policy  of  his 
Government;  establishing  a  precedent  which 
has  always  been  followed.  Since  that  time 
it  has  been  the  duty  of  the  Prime  Minister 
to  form  the  Ministry;  and  no  sovereign 
since  Anne  has  ever  appeared  at  a  Cabinet 
Council,  nor  has  refused  assent  to  a  single 
Act  of  Parliament. 

Such  a  King  was  merely  a  symbol  of 
Protestantism  and  of  Constitutional  Gov- 
ernment. But  this  stream  of  ro3"al  dulness 
which  set  in  from  Hanover  in  1714,  came 
as  a  great  blessing  at  the  time.  It  enabled 
England  to  be  ruled  for  thirty  years  by  the 
party  which  had  since  the  usurpation  of 
James  I.  stood  for  the  rights  of  the  people. 
Walpole  created  a  Whig  Government.  The 
Whigs  had  never  wavered  from  certain 
principles  upon  which  they  had  risen  to 
power.  There  must  be  no  tampering  with 
justice,  nor  with  the  freedom  of  the  press, 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       137 

nor  any  attempt  to  rule  independently  of 
Parliament.  Thirty  years  of  rule  under 
these  principles  converted  them  into  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  national  life.  The  habit 
of  loyalty  to  them  was  so  established  by  this 
long  ascendancy  of  the  "Whig  party,  that 
Englishmen  forgot  that  such  things  could 
be  ; — forgot  that  it  was  possible  to  infringe 
upon  the  sacred  liberties  of  the  people. 

However  much  "  Whig"  and  "  Tory"  have 
seemed  to  change  since  we  first  hear  of  them 
in  the  time  of  James  I.,  they  have  in  fact 
remained  essentially  the  same;  the  Whigs 
always  tending  to  limit  the  power  of  the 
crown,  and  the  Tories  to  limit  that  of  the 
people.  At  the  time  of  Walpole  the  Tories 
had  been  the  supporters  of  the  Pretender 
and  of  the  High  Church  party,  the  Whigs 
of  the  policy  of  William  and  Protestantism. 
Their  predecessors  were  the  "  Round- 
heads "  and  "  Cavaliers,"  and  their  succes- 
sors to-day  are  found  in  tlie  "  Liberals " 
and  "  Consei'vatives." 

There  was  at  last  peace  abroad  and  pros- 
perity at  home.  The  latter  was  interrupted 
for  a  time  in  1720  by  the  speculative  mad- 


138       A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

ness  created  by  the  "South-Sea  Bubble." 
Men  were  almost  crazed  by  the  rise  in  the 
value  of  shares  from  £100  to  £1,000;  and 
then  plunged  into  despair  and  ruin  when 
they  suddenly  dropped  to  nothing.  The 
suffering  caused  by  this  wreck  of  fortunes 
was  great.  But  industries  revived,  and 
prosperity  and  wealth  returned  with  little 
to  disturb  them  again  until  the  death  of 
George  I.  in  1727;  v/hen  another  George 
came  over  from  Hanover  to  occupy  the 
English  throne. 

George  II.  had  one  advantage  over  his 
father.  He  did  speak  the  English  language. 
Nor  was  he  content  to  smoke  his  pipe  and 
entrust  his  Kingdom  to  his  Ministers,  which 
was  a  doubtful  advantage  for  the  nation. 
But  his  clever  wife,  Queen  Caroline,  believed 
thoroughly  in  Walpole,  and  when  she  was 
controlled  by  the  Minister,  and  then  in  turn 
herself  controlled  the  policy  of  the  King^ 
that  simple  gentleman  sujDposed  that  he, — 
George  II., — was  ruling  his  own  King- 
dom. His  small,  narrow  mind  was  inca- 
pable of  statesmanship ;  but  he  was  a  good 
soldier.     Methodical,  stubborn  and  passion- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       139 

ate,  he  was  a  King  who  needed  to  he  care- 
fully watched,  and  adroitly  managed,  to 
keep  him  from  doing  harm. 

There  was  a  young  "  Pretender"  in  these 
days  (Charles  Edward  Stuart),  who  was  con- 
spiring with  Louis  XV.,  as  his  father  had 
done  with  Louis  XIV.,  to  get  to  the  English 
throne.  We  see  him  flitting  about  Europe 
from  time  to  time,  landing  here  and  there 
on  the  British  Coast— until  when  finally  de- 
feated at "  Culloden  Moor,"  1746,  this  wraith 
of  the  House  of  Stuart  disappears— dying  ob- 
scurely in  Eome;  and  "  Wha'll  be  King  but 
Charlie,"  and  "Over  the  Water  to  Charlie," 
linger  only  as  the  echo  of  a  lost  cause. 

There  was  a  time  of  despondency  when 
England  seemed  to  be  annexed  to  Hanover, 
following  her  fortunes,  and  sharing  her 
misfortunes  in  the  "seven  years'  war"  over 
the  Austrian  succession,  as  if  the  Great 
Kingdom  were  a  mere  dependency  to  the 
little  Electorate ;  and  all  to  please  the  stub- 
born King.  Desiring  peace  above  all  things 
England  was  no  sooner  freed  from  one  en- 
tanglement, than  she  was  plunged  into  an- 
other. 


140       A    SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND, 

In  India,  the  English  "Merchant  Com- 
pany," chartered  by  Elizabeth  in  1600,  had 
expanded  to  a  power.  One  of  the  native 
Princes,  jealous  of  these  foreign  intruders 
in  Bengal,  and  roused,  it  was  said,  by  the 
French  to  expel  them,  committed  that  deed 
at  which  the  world  has  shuddered  ever  since. 
One  hundred  and  fifty  settlers  and  traders, 
were  thrust  into  an  air-tight  dungeon — 
in  an  Indian  midsummer.  Maddened  with 
heat  and  with  thirst,  most  of  them  died  be- 
fore morning,  trampling  upon  each  other  in 
frantic  efforts  to  get  air  and  water.  This 
is  the  story  of  the  "  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta ;" 
which  led  to  the  victories  of  Clive,  and  the 
establishment  of  English  Empire  in  India, 
1757. 

Two  years  later  a  quarrel  over  the  boun- 
daries of  their  American  Colonies  brought 
the  French  and  English  into  direct  conflict. 
Gen.  Wolfe,  the  English  Commander,  was 
killed  at  the  moment  of  victory  in  scaling 
the  walls  of  Quebec.  Montcalm,  the  French 
commander,  being  saved  the  humiliation  of 
seeing  the  loss  of  Canada  (1760),  by  sharing 
the  same  fate. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       141 

The  dream  of  French  Empire  in  America 
•was  at  an  end;  and  with  the  cession  of 
Florida  by  Spain,  England  was  mistress  of 
the  eastern  half  of  the  Continent  from  Nova 
Scotia  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Mississippi.  So  since  the 
days  of  Elizabeth,  and  from  seed  dropped 
by  her  hand,  an  Eastern  and  a  Western  Em- 
pire had  been  added  to  that  island  King- 
dom, whose  highest  dream  had  been  to  get 
back  some  of  her  lost  provinces  in  France. 
Instead  of  that  it  was  to  be  her  destiny  to 
girdle  the  Earth,  so  that  the  Sun  in  its  en- 
tire course  should  never  cease  to  shine  u^Don 
British  Dominions. 

Side  by  side  with  the  aspiration  which 
uplifts  a  nation,  there  is  always  a  tendency 
toward  degradation,  which  can  only  be  ar- 
rested by  the  infusion  of  a  higher  spiritual 
life.  Strong  alcoholic  liquors  had  taken  the 
place  of  beer  in  England  (to  avoid  the  ex- 
cessive tax  imposed  upon  it)  and  the  grossest 
intemperance  prevailed  in  the  early  part  of 
this  reign.  John  Wesley  introduced  a  re- 
generative force  when  he  went  about  among 
the  people  preaching  "Methodism,"  a  pure 


142       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

and  simple  religion.  Not  since  Augustine 
had  the  hearts  of  men  been  so  touched,  and 
a  new  life  and  new  spirit  came  into  being, 
better  than  all  the  prosperity  and  territorial 
expansion  of  the  time. 

Walpole  had  passed  from  view  long  be- 
fore the  stirring  changes  we  have  alluded 
to.  A  new  hand  was  guiding  the  affairs  of 
State  J  the  hand  of  William  Pitt. 


CHAPTER   Xn 

At  the  close  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  Eng- 
land had  driven  the  French  out  of  Canada, 
— her  ships  which  had  traversed  the  Pacific 
from  one  end  to  the  other,  (Capt.  Cook)  had 
wherever  they  touched,  claimed  islands  for 
the  Crown ;  she  had  projected  into  the  heart 
of  India  English  institutions  and  civilization- 
Mistress  of  North  America,  and  of  the  Pa- 
cific Isles,  and  future  mistress  of  India,  she 
had  left  m  comparative  insignificance  those 
European  States  whose  power  was  bounded 
by  a  single  Contment.  And  all  this, — m  the 
reign  of  the  puniest  King  who  had  ever  sat 
upon  her  throne  I  As  if  to  show  that  Eng- 
land was  great  not  through — but  in  spite 
of,  her  Kings. 

When  in  1Y60,  George  III.  came  to  the 
throne,  thirteen  prosperous  American  Col- 
onies were  a  source  of  handsome  revenue  to 


144       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

the  mother  country,  by  whom  they  were 
regarded  as  receptacles  for  surplus  popula- 
tion, and  a  good  field  for  unsuccessful  men 
and  adventurers.  These  children  were  fre- 
quently reminded  that  they  owed  England 
a  great  debt  of  gratitude.  They  had  cost 
her  expensive  Indian  and  French  wars  for 
which  she  should  expect  them  to  reimburse 
her  as  their  prosperity  grew.  They  were 
to  make  nothing  themselves,  not  so  much  as 
a  horseshoe;  but  to  send  their  raw  ma- 
terial to  English  mills  and  factories,  and 
when  it  was  returned  to  them  in  wares  and 
manufactured  articles,  they  were  to  pay 
such  taxes  as  were  imposed,  with  grateful 
hearts  to  the  kind  Government  which  was 
BO  good  as  to  rule  them. 

If  the  Colonies  had  still  needed  the  pro- 
tection of  England  from  the  French,  they 
might  never  have  questioned  the  propriety 
of  their  treatment.  They  were  at  heart  in- 
tensely loyal,  and  the  thought  of  severance 
from  the  Mother  Country  probably  did  not 
exist  in  a  single  breast.  But  they  had  since 
the  fall  of  Quebec  a  feeling  of  security 
which  was  a  good    background    for  inde- 


.    A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.        145 

pendenoe,  if  their  manhood  required  its  as- 
sertion. They  were  Anglo-Saxons,  and  per- 
fectly understood  the  long  struggle  for  civil 
rights  which  lay  behind  them.  So  when  in 
1765  they  were  told  that  they  must  bear 
their  share  of  the  burden  of  National  Debt 
which  had  been  increased  by  wars  in  their 
behalf,  and  to  that  end  a  "  Stamp  Act"  had 
been  passed,  they  very  carefully  looked  into 
the  demand.  This  Act  required  that  every 
legal  document  drawn  in  the  Colonies,  will, 
deed,  note,  draft,  receipt,  etc.,  be  written 
upon  paper  bearing  an  expensive  Govern- 
ment stamp. 

The  thirteen  Colonies,  utterly  at  variance 
upon  most  subjects,  were  upon  this  agreed : 
They  tvould  not  submit  to  the  tax.  They 
had  read  the  Magna  Charta,  they  knew  that 
the  Stamp  Act  violated  its  most  vital  prin- 
ciple. This  tax  had  been  framed  to  extort 
money  from  men  who  had  no  representation 
in  Parliament,  hence  without  their  consent. 

Pitt  vehemently  declared  that  the  Act 
was  a  tyranny,  Burke  and  Fox  protested 
against  it,  the  brain  and  the  heart  of  Eng- 
land compelled  the  repeal  of  the  Act;  Pitt 


146       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

declaring  that  the  spirit  shown  in  America 
was  the  same  that  in  England  had  with- 
stood the  Stuarts,  and  refused  "Ship 
Money."  There  was  rejoicing  and  ringing 
of  bells  over  the  repeal,  but  before  the 
echoes  had  died  away  another  plan  was 
forming  in  the  narrow  recesses  of  the 
King's  brain. 

George  III.  had  read  English  History. 
He  remembered  that  if  Parliaments  grow 
obstructive,  the  way  is  not  to  fight  them 
but  to  pack  them  with  the  right  kind  of 
material.  Tampering  with  the  boroughs, 
had  so  filled  the  House  of  Commons  with 
Tories  that  it  had  almost  ceased  to  be  a 
representative  body,  and  if  Pitt  would  not 
bow  to  his  wishes,  he  would  find  a  Minister 
who  would.     Another  tax  was  devised. 

Threepence  a  pound  upon  tea,  shipped  di- 
rect to  America  from  India,  would  save  the 
impost  to  England,  bring  tea  at  a  cheaper 
rate  to  the  Colonies  (even  with  the  added 
tax),  and  at  the  same  time  yield  a  handsome 
revenue  to  the  Government. 

The  Colonists  were  not  at  all  moved  by 
the  idea  of  getting  cheaper  tea.     They  had 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       147 

taken  their  stand  in  this  matter  of  taxation 
without  representation;  they  would  never 
move  from  it  one  inch.  When  the  cargo  of 
tea  arrived  in  Boston  harbor,  it  was  thrown 
overboard  by  men  disguised  as  Indians. 

George  III.  in  a  rage  closed  the  port  of 
Boston,  cancelled  the  Charter  of  Massa- 
chusetts, withdrew  the  right  of  electing  its 
own  council  and  judges,  investing  the  Gov- 
ernor with  these  rights,  to  whom  he  also 
gave  the  power  to  send  rebellious  and  sedi- 
tious prisoners  to  England  for  trial.  Then 
to  make  all  this  sure  of  fulfilment,  he  sent 
troops  to  enforce  the  order,  in  command  of 
General  Gage,  whom  he  also  appointed 
Governor  of  Massachusetts. 

Fox  said,  "  How  intolerable  that  it  should 
be  in  the  power  of  one  blockhead  to  do  so 
much  mischief!"  The  obstinacy  of  George 
III.  cost  England  her  dearest  and  fairest 
possession.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  pic- 
ture what  would  be  her  power  to-day  if  she 
had  continued  to  be  mistress  of  North 
America  I 

All  unconscious  of  his  stupendous  folly, 
the  King  was  delighted  at  his  own  firmness. 


148       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

He  rubbed  his  hands  in  high  glee  as  he  said, — 
"  The  die  is  cast,  the  Colonies  must  submit 
or  triumph, "  meaning  of  course  that  "tri- 
umph" was  a  thing  impossible.  Pitt  (now 
Earl  Chatham),  Burke,  Fox,  even  the  Tory 
House  of  Lords,  petitioned  and  implored  in 
vain.  The  confident,  stubborn  King  stood 
alone,  and  upon  him  lies  the  whole  respon- 
sibility— Lord  North  simply  acting  as  his 
compliant  tool. 

The  colonies  united  as  one,  all  local  differ- 
ences forgotten.  As  they  fought  at  Lex- 
ington and  at  Bunker  Hill,  the  idea  of  some- 
thing more  than  resistance  was  born — the 
idea  of  independence. 

A  letter  from  the  Government  addressed 
to  the  Commander-in-Chief  as  "George 
Washington,  Esq.,"  was  sent  back  unopened. 
Battles  were  lost  and  won,  the  courage  and 
resources  of  the  Americans  holding  out  for 
years  as  if  by  miracle,  until  when  rein- 
forced by  France  the  end  drew  near;  and 
was  reached  with  the  defeat  of  Lord  Corn- 
wallis  at  Yorktown. 

It  was  a  dreary  morning  in  1782  when  a 
humihated  King  stood  before  the  House  of 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       149 

Lords  and  acknowledged  the  independence 
of  the  United  States  of  America ! 

Thus  ended  a  contest  which  the  Earl  of 
Chatham  had  said  "was  conceived  in  in- 
justice, and  nurtured  in  folly." 

It  was  during  the  American  war  that  the 
Press  rose  to  be  a  great  counterbalancing 
power.  Popular  sentiment  no  longer  find- 
ing an  outlet  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
sought  another  mode  of  expression.  Public 
opinion  gathered  in  by  the  newspapers  be- 
came a  force  before  which  Government 
dared  not  stand.  The  "  Chronicle, "  "  Post, " 
"Herald"  and  "Times"  came  into  existence, 
philosophers  like  Coleridge,  and  statesmen 
like  Canning  using  their  columns  and  com- 
pelling reforms. 

The  impeachment  of  Warren  Hastings, 
conducted  by  Burke,  Sheridan,  and  Fox,  led 
to  such  an  exposure  of  the  cruelty  and  cor 
ruption  of  the  East  India  Company,  that 
the  gigantic  monopoly  was  broken  up.  A 
"Board  of  Control"  was  created  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  Indian  affairs,  thus  absorb- 
ing it  into  the  general  system  of  English 
Government  (17 Si). 


150       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

James  Watt  had  introduced  (in  1769) 
steam  into  the  life  of  England,  with  conse- 
quences dire  at  first,  and  fraught  with  such 
tremendous  results  later,  changing  all  the 
industrial  conditions  of  England  and  of  the 
world. 

In  1Y89  England  witnessed  that  terrific 
outburst  of  human  passions  in  France,  which 
culminated  in  the  death  of  a  King  and  a 
Que.en.  An  appalling  sight  which  made 
Republicanism  seem  odious,  even  to  so  ex- 
alted and  just  a  soul  as  Burke,  who  de- 
nounced it  with  words  of  thrilling  eloquence. 
Then  came  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  and  his 
swift  ascent  to  imperial  power,  followed  by 
his  audacious  conquest  almost  of  Europe, 
until  Arthur  Wellesley,  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington, led  the  allied  army  at  Waterloo, 
and  Napoleon's  sun  went  down. 

In  1812  the  United  States  for  a  second 
time  declared  war  against  England.  That 
country  had  claimed  the  right  to  search  for 
British-born  seamen  upon  American  ships, 
in  order  to  impress  them  into  her  own  ser- 
vice and  recruit  her  Navy.  The  "right 
of    search"   was    denied,  and    the    British 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       151 

forces  landed  in  Maryland,  burned  the  Cap- 
itol and  Congressional  Library  at  Wash- 
ington, but  met  their  "Waterloo"  at  New 
Orleans,  where  they  were  defeated  by  Gen- 
eral Andrew  Jackson,  and  the  ''right  of 
seai'ch"  is  heard  of  no  more. 

Long  before  this  time  George  III.  had 
been  a  prey  to  blindness,  deafneso,  and  in- 
sanity, and  in  1820  his  dea'h  came  as  a 
welcome  event.  Had  he  not  been  blind, 
deaf,  and  insane,  in  1775,  Engl'^nd  might 
not  have  lost  her  fairest  possession. 

The  weight  of  the  enormous  debt  incurred 
by  the  long  wars  fell  m  st  heavily  upon  the 
poor.  One-half  of  their  earnings  went  to 
the  Crown.  The  poor  man  lived  under  a 
taxed  roof,  wore  taxed  clothing,  ate  taxed 
food  from  taxed  dishes,  and  looked  at  the 
light  of  day  through  taxed  window-glass. 
Nothing  was  free  but  the  ocean. 

But  there  must  not  be  cheap  bread,  for 
that  meant  reduced  rents.  The  farmer  was 
"protected"  by  having  the  price  of  corn  kept 
artificially  above  a  certain  point,  and  fur- 
ther "protected"  by  a  prohibitory  tax  upon 
foreign  corn,  all  in  order  that  the  landlord 


152       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

might  collect  undiminished  rentals  from  his 
farm  lands.  But,  alas!  there  was  no  "pro- 
tection" from  starvation.  Is  it  strange  that 
gaunt  famine  was  a  frequent  visitor  in  the 
land? — But  men  must  starve  in  silence. — 
To  beg  was  a  crime. 

*  Alas,  that  bread  should  be  bo  dear, 
And  flesh  and  blood  so  cheap  1" 

Children  six  years  old  worked  fourteen 
and  fifteen  hours  daily  in  mines  and  fac- 
tories, beaten  by  overseers  to  keep  them 
awake  over  their  tasks;  while  others  five 
and  six  years  old,  driven  by  blows,  crawled 
with  their  brooms  into  narrow  soot-clogged 
chimneys,  and  sometimes  getting  wedged 
in  narrow  flues,  were  mercifully  suffocated 
and  translated  to  a  kinder  world. 

A  ruinous  craving  was  created  for  stimu- 
lants, which  took  the  place  of  insufiBcient 
food,  and  in  these  stunted,  pallid,  emaciated 
beings  a  foundation  was  laid  for  an  en- 
feebled and  debased  population,  which 
would  sorely  tax  the  wisdom  of  statesman- 
ship in  the  future. 

If  such  was  the  condition  of  the  honest 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       153 

working  poor,  what  was  that  of  the  crimi- 
nal ?  It  is  difficult  now  to  compreliend  the  fe- 
rocity of  laws  wliich  made  S35  offenses— pun- 
isliable  loHli  death, — most  of  which  offenses 
we  should  now  call  misdemeanors.  But 
perhaps  death  was  better  than  the  prisons, 
which  were  the  alDode  of  vermin,  disease 
and  filth  unspeakable.  Jailers  asked  for  no 
pay,  but  depended  upon  the  money  they 
could  wring  from  the  wretched  beings  in 
their  charge  for  food  and  small  alleviations 
to  their  misery.  In  1773  John  Howard 
commenced  his  work  in  the  prisons,  and  the 
idea  was  first  conceived  that  the  object  of 
punishment  should  be  not  to  degrade  sin- 
sick  humanity,  but  to  reform  it. 

Far  above  this  deep  dark  undercurrent, 
there  was  a  bright,  shining  surface.  John- 
son had  made  his  ponderous  contribution  to 
letters.  Frances  Burney  had  surprised  the 
world  with  "Evelina;"  Horace  Walpole, 
(son  of  Sir  Robert)  was  dropping  witty 
epigrams  from  his  pen;  Sheridan,  Gold- 
smith, Cowper,  Burns,  Southey,  Coleridge, 
Wordsworth,  in  tones  both  grave  and  gay, 
were   making    sweet  music;   while    Scott, 


154       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

Byron,  Shelley  added  strains  rich  and 
melodious. 

As  ail  this  was  passing,  George  Stephen- 
son was  pondering  over  a  daring  project. 
Fulton  had  completed  his  invention  in  1807, 
and  in  1819  the  first  steamship  had  crossed 
the  Atlantic.  If  engines  could  be  made  to 
plough  through  the  water,  why  might  they 
not  also  be  made  to  walk  the  earth?  It 
was  thought  an  audacious  experiment  when 
he  put  this  fire-devouring  iron  monster  on 
wheels,  to  draw  loaded  cars.  Not  until  1830 
was  his  plan  realized,  when  his  new  locomo- 
tive— "The  Rocket" — drew  the  first  railway 
train  from  Liverpool  to  Manchester,  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  venturing  his  life  on 
the  trial  trip. 

In  the  year  1782  Ireland  was  permitted 

to  have  its  own  Parliament;  but  owing  to 
conditions  which  are  explained  in  a  later 
chapter,  she  was  deprived  of  this  legisla- 
tive independence,  and  in  1801,  after  a  pro- 
longed struggle,  was  reunited  to  Great 
Britain,  and  thenceforth  sent  her  represen- 
tatives to  the  British  Parliament. 

The  laws  against  Roman  Catholics  whicli 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       155 

had  been  enacted  as  measures  of  self-defence 
from  the  Stuarts,  now  that  there  was  no 
longer  a  necessity  for  them  had  become  an 
oppression,  which  bore  with  special  weight 
upon  Catholic  Ireland.  By  the  oath  of 
"Supremacy,"  and  by  the  declarations 
against  transubstantiation,  intercession  of 
Saints,  etc.,  etc.,  the  Catholics  were  shut 
out  from  all  share  in  a  Government  which 
they  were  taxed  to  support.  Such  an  ob- 
vious injustice  should  not  have  needed  a 
powerful  pleader ;  but  it  found  one  in  Daniel 
O'Connell,  who  by  constant  agitation  and 
fiery  eloquence  created  such  a  public  senti- 
ment, that  the  Ministry,  headed  by  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  aided  by  Sir  Eobert  Peel  in 
the  House,  carried  through  a  measure  in  182 S 
which  opened  Parliament  to  Catholics,  and 
also  gave  them  free  access  to  all  places  of 
trust.  Civil  or  Military, — excepting  that  of 
Eegent, — Lord  Chancellor— and  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant of  Ireland. 

There  is  nothing  to  record  of  George  IV. 
except  the  irregularities  of  his  private  life, 
over  which  we  need  not  linger.  He  was  a 
dissolute  spendthrift.     His  illegal  marriage 


156       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  and  his  legal  mar- 
riage with  Caroline  of  Brunswick  from 
whom  he  quickly  freed  himself,  are  the 
chief  events  in  his  history. 

His  charming  young  daughter,  the  Prin- 
cess Charlotte,  had  died  in  181Y,  soon  after 
her  marriage  with  Prince  Leopold  of  Saxe- 
Coburg.  She  had  been  adored  as  the  future 
Queen,  but  upon  the  death  of  George  IV.  in 
1830,  the  Crown  passed  to  his  sailor  brother 
William. 

William  IV.  was  sixty-five  when  he  came 
to  the  throne.  He  was  not  a  courtier  in  his 
manners,  nor  much  of  a  fine  gentleman  in 
his  tastes.  But  his  plain,  rough  sincerity 
was  not  unacceptable,  and  his  immediate 
espousal  of  the  Eeform  Act,  then  pending, 
won  him  popularity  at  once. 

The  efficiency  and  integrity  of  the  House 
of  Commons  had  long  been  impaired  by  an 
effete  system  of  representation,  which  had 
been  unchanged  for  500  years.  Boroughs 
were  represented  which  had  long  disappeared 
from  the  face  of  the  earth.  One  had  for 
years  been  covered  by  the  sea!  Another 
existed  as  a  fragment  of  a  wall  in  a  gentle- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       1 57 

man's  park,  while  towns  like  Manchester, 
Leeds,  Birmingham,  and  nineteen  other 
large  and  prosperous  places,  had  no  represen- 
tation whatever.  These  "rotten  boroughs" 
as  they  were  called,  were  usually  in  the 
hands  of  wealthy  landowners;  one  great 
Peer  literally  carrying  eleven  boroughs  in 
his  pocket,  so  that  eleven  members  went  to 
the  House  of  Commons  at  his  dictation, — It 
would  seem  that  a  reform  so  obviously 
needed  should  have  been  easy  to  accomplish. 
But  the  House  of  Lords  clung  to  the  old 
system  as  if  the  life  of  the  Kingdom  de- 
pended upon  it.  And  when  the  measure 
was  finally  carried  the  good  old  Duke  of 
Wellington  said  sadly,  "We  must  hope  for 
the  best ;  but  the  most  sanguine  cannot  be- 
lieve we  shall  ever  again  be  as  prosperous." 

By  this  Act  56  boroughs  were  disfran- 
chised, and  43  new  ones,  with  30  county 
constituencies,  were  created. 

It  was  in  the  contest  over  this  Reform 
Bill  that  the  Tories  took  the  name  of  "  Con- 
servatives" and  their  opponents  "Liberals." 
Its  passage  marks  a  most  important  transi- 
tion  in   England.      The   w^orkingman   was 


158       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

by  it  enfranchised,  and  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, which  had  hitherto  represented  j^rop- 
erty,  thenceforth  represented  manhood. 

Nor  were  political  reforms  the  only  ones. 
Human  pity  awoke  from  its  lethargy.  The 
penalties  for  wrongdoing  became  less  brutal, 
the  prisons  less  terrible.  No  longer  did  gap- 
ing crowds  watch  shivering  wretches  brought 
out  of  the  jails  every  Monday  morning,  in 
batches  of  twenty  and  thirty,  to  be  hung  for 
pilfering  or  something  even  less.  Little 
children  were  lifted  out  of  the  mines  and 
factories  and  chimneys  and  placed  in  schools, 
which  also  began  to  be  created  for  the  poor. 
Numberless  ways  were  devised  for  making 
life  less  miserable  for  the  unfortunate,  and 
for  improving  the  social  conditions  of  toiling 
men  and  women. 

While  white  slavery  in  the  collieries  and 
factories  was  thus  mitigated,  Wilberforce 
removed  the  stain  of  negro  slavery  from 
England  in  securing  the  passage  of  a  Bill 
which,  while  compensating  the  owners  (who 
received  £20,000,000),  set  800,000  human 
beings  free  (1833). 


CHAPTER  XIII 

William  IV.  died  at  Windsor  Castle,  and 
at  5  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  June  20th, 
1837  (just  58  years  from  the  day  this  is 
written),  a  young  girl  of  eighteen  was 
awakened  to  he  told  she  was  Queen  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  Victoria  was 
the  only  child  of  Edward,  Duke  of  Kent, 
brother  of  William  IV.  Her  marriage  in 
1840  with  her  cousin,  Prince  Albert  of  Saxe- 
Coburg,  was  one  of  deep  affection,  and  se- 
cured for  her  a  wise  and  prudent  counsellor. 

On  account  of  the  high  price  of  corn,  Ire- 
land had  for  years  subsisted  entirely  upon 
potatoes.  The  failure  of  this  crop  for  sev- 
eral successive  seasons,  in  18-46  produced  a 
famine  of  such  appalling  dimensions  that 
the  old  and  the  new  world  came  to  the 
rescue  of  the  starving  people.  Parliament 
voted  £10,000,000  for  food.     But  before  re- 


l6o       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

lief  could  reach  them,  two  millions,  one- 
fourth  of  the  population  of  Ireland,  had  per- 
ished. The  anti-corn  measures,  championed 
by  Kichard  Cobden  and  John  Bright,  which 
had  been  bitterly  opposed  by  the  Tories 
under  the  leadership  of  Disraeh,  were  thus 
reinforced  by  unexpected  argument;  for- 
eign breadstuffs  were  permitted  free  access 
and  free  trade  was  accepted  as  the  policy  of 
England. 

Nicholas,  the  Czar  of  Eussia,  was,  after 
the  fashion  of  his  predecessors  (and  his  suc- 
cessors), always  waiting  for  the  right  mo- 
ment to  sweep  down  upon  Constantinople. 
England  had  become  only  a  land  of  shop- 
keepers, France  was  absorbed  with  her  new 
Empire,  and  with  trying  on  her  fresh  im- 
perial trappings.  The  time  seemed  favor- 
able for  a  move.  The  pious  soul  of  Nicholas 
was  suddenly  stirred  by  certain  restrictions 
laid  by  the  Sultan  upon  the  Christians  in 
Palestine.  He  demanded  that  he  be  made 
the  Protector  of  Christianity  in  the  Turkish 
Empire,  by  an  arrangement  which  would 
in  fact  transfer  the  Sovereignty  from  Con- 
stantinople to  St.  Petersburg. 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       l6l 

That  mass  of  Oriental  corruption  known 
Bt)  the  Ottoman  Empire,  held  together  by  no 
vital  forces,  was  ready  to  fall  into  ruin  at 
one  vigorous  touch.  It  was  an  anachronism 
in.  ,^^ern  Europe,  where  its  cruelty  was 
onl>  limited  by  its  weakness.  That  such  an 
odious,  treacherous  despotism  should  so 
strongly  appeal  to  the  sympathies  of  Eng- 
land that  she  was  willing  to  enter  upon  a  life- 
and-death  struggle  for  its  maintenance,  let 
those  believe  who  can. — Her  rushing  to  the 
defence  of  Turkey,  was  about  as  sincere  as 
Russia's  interest  in  the  Christians  in  Pales- 
tine. 

The  simple  truth  beneath  all  these  diplo- 
matic subterfuges  was  of  course  that  Russia 
wanted  Constantinople,  and  England  would 
at  any  cost  prevent  her  getting  it.  The 
keys  to  the  East  must,  in  any  event,  not 
belong  to  Eussia,  her  only  rival  in  Asia. 

France  had  no  Eastern  Empire  to  protect, 
BO  her  participation  in  the  struggle  is  at  first 
not  so  easy  to  comprehend,  until  we  reflect 
that  she  had  an  ambitious  and  parvenu 
Emperor.  To  have  Europe  see  him  in  con- 
fidential alliance  with  England,  was  alone 


l62       A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

worth  a  war ;  while  a  vigorous  foreign  pol- 
icy would  help  to  divert  attention  from  the 
recent  treacheries  by  which  he  had  reached 
a  throne. 

Such  were  some  of  the  hidden  springs  of 
action  which  in  1854:  brought  about  the 
Crimean  War, — one  of  the  most  deadly  and 
destructive  of  modern  times.  Two  great 
Christian  kingdoms  had  rushed  to  the  de- 
fence of  the  worst  Government  ever  known, 
and  the  best  blood  in  England  was  being 
poured  into  Turkish  soil. 

It  was  soon  discovered  that  the  English 
were  no  less  skilled  as  fighters,  than  as 
"shop-keepers."  They  were  victorious  from 
the  very  fiirst,  even  when  the  numbers  were 
ill-matched.  But  one  immortal  deed  of  valor 
must  have  made  Russia  tremble  before  the 
spirit  it  revealed. 

Six  hundred  cavalrymen,  in  obedience  to 
an  order  which  all  knew  was  a  blunder, 
dashed  into  a  valley  lined  with  cannon,  and 
charged  an  army  of  30,000  men ! 

♦'  Forward,  the  Light  Brigade !  " 
Was  there  a  man  dismay 'd? 
Not  the'  the  soldier  knew 
Some  one  had  blunder'd : 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.        1 63 

Their' s  not  to  make  reply, 
Their's  not  to  reason  why, 
Their'8  but  to  do,  and  die : 
Into  the  Talley  of  Death 
Rode  the  six  hundred. 

The  horrible  blunder  at  Balaklava  was 
oot  the  only  one.  One  incapable  general 
was  followed  by  another,  and  routine  and 
red-tape  were  more  deadly  than  Russian 
shot  and  shell. 

Food  and  supplies  beyond  their  utmost 
power  of  consumption,  were  hurried  to  the 
army  by  grateful  England.  Thousands  of 
tons  of  wood  for  huts,  shiploads  of  clothing 
and  profuse  provision  for  health  and  com- 
fort, reached  Balaklava. 

While  the  tall  masts  of  the  ships  bearing 
these  treasures  were  visible  from  the  heights 
of  Sebastopol,  men  there  were  perishing  for 
lack  of  food,  fuel  and  clothing.  In  rags,  al- 
most barefoot,  half-fed,  often  without  fuel 
even  to  cook  their  food,  in  that  terrible 
winter  on  the  heights,  whole  regiments  of 
heroes  became  extinct,  because  there  was 
not  sufficient  administrative  ability  to  con- 
vey the  supplies  to  a  perishing  army ! 

So  wretched  was  the  hospital  service,  that 


1 64       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OP  ENGLAND. 

to  be  sent  there  meant  death.  Gangrene  car- 
ried off  four  out  of  five.  Men  were  dying 
at  a  rate  which  would  have  extinguished 
the  entire  army  in  a  year  and  a  half.  It 
was  Florence  Nightingale  who  redeemed 
this  national  disgrace,  and  brought  order, 
care  and  healing  into  the  camps. 

When  England  recalls  with  pride  the 
valor  and  the  victories  in  the  Crimea,  let 
her  remember  it  was  the  manhood  in  the 
ranks  which  achieved  it.  When  all  was 
over,  war  had  slain  its  thousands, — but 
official  incapacity  its  tens  of  thousands ! 

It  was  a  costly  victory:  Kussia  was  hu- 
miliated, was  even  shut  out  from  the  waters 
of  her  own  Black  Sea,  where  she  had  hitherto 
been  supreme.  To  two  million  Turks  was 
preserved  the  privilege  of  oppressing  eight 
million  Christians;  and  for  this, — twenty 
thousand  British  youth  had  perished.  But — 
the  way  to  India  was  unobstructed ! 

England's  career  of  conquest  in  India 
was  not  altogether  of  her  own  seeking.  As 
a  neighboring  province  committed  outrages 
upon  its  British  neighbors,  it  became  neces- 
sary in  self-defence  to  punish  it ;  and  such 


A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.        165 

punishment,  invariably  led  to  its  subjuga- 
tion. In  this  way  one  province  after  an- 
other was  subdued,  until  finally  in  the  absorp- 
tion of  the  Kingdom  of  Oude  (1856)  the 
natural  boundary  of  the  Himalaya  Moun- 
tains had  been  reached,  and  the  conquest 
was  complete.  The  little  trading  company 
of  British  merchants  had  become  an  Em- 
pire, vast  and  rich  beyond  the  wildest 
dreams  of  romance. 

The  British  rule  was  upon  the  whole  be- 
neficent. The  condition  of  the  people  was 
improved,  and  there  was  little  dissatisfac- 
tion except  among  the  deposed  native 
princes,  who  were  naturally  filled  with  hate 
and  bitterness.  The  large  army  required  to 
hold  such  an  amount  of  territory,  was  to  a 
great  extent  recruited  from  the  native  pop- 
ulation, the  Sepoys,  as  they  were  called, 
making  good  soldiers. 

In  1857  the  King  of  the  Oude  and  some 
of  the  native  princes  cunningly  devised  a 
plan  of  undermining  the  British  by  means 
of  their  Sepoys,  and  circumstances  afforded 
a  singular  opportunity  for  carrying  out 
their  design. 


l66       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

A  new  rifle  had  been  adopted,  which  re- 
quired a  greased  cartridge,  for  which  ani- 
mal grease  was  used.  The  Sepoys  were  told 
this  was  a  deep-laid  plot  to  overthrow  their 
native  religions.  The  Mussulman  was  to  be 
eternally  lost  by  defiling  his  lips  with  the 
fat  of  swine,  and  the  Hindu,  by  the  indig- 
nity offered  to  the  venerated  Cow.  These 
English  had  tried  to  ruin  them  not  alone  in 
this  world,  but  in  the  next. 

Thrilled  with  horror,  terror-stricken,  the 
dusky  soldiers  were  converted  into  demons. 
Mutinies  arose  simultaneously  at  twenty-two 
stations;  not  only  officers,  but  Europeans, 
were  slaughtered  without  mercy.  At 
Cawnpore  was  the  crowning  horror.  After 
a  siege  of  many  days  the  garrison  capitu- 
lated to  Nana  Sahib  and  his  Sepoys.  The 
officers  were  shot,  and  their  wives,  daugh- 
ters, sisters  and  babes,  206  in  number,  were 
shut  up  in  a  large  apartment  which  had 
been  used  by  the  ladies  for  a  ballroom. 

After  eighteen  days  of  captivity,  the  hor- 
rors of  which  will  never  be  known,  five  men 
with  sabres,  in  the  twilight,  were  seen  to 
enter  the  room  and  close  the  door.     There 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       167 

were  wild  cries  and  shrieks  and  groans. 
Three  times  a  hacked  and  a  blunted  sabre 
was  passed  out  of  a  window  in  exchange  for 
a  sharper  one.  Finally  the  groans  and 
moans  gradually  ceased  and  all  was  still. 
The  next  morning  a  mass  of  mutilated  re- 
mains was  thrown  into  an  empty  well. 

Two  days  later  the  avenger  came  in  the 
person  of  General  Havelock.  The  Sepoys 
were  conquered  and  a  policy  of  merciless 
retribution  followed. 

In  that  well  at  Cawnpore  was  forever 
buried  sympathy  for  the  mutinous  Indian. 
When  we  recall  that,  we  can  even  hear 
with  calmness  of  Sepoys  fired  from  the  can- 
non's mouth.  From  that  moment  it  was 
the  cause  of  men  in  conflict  with  demons, 
civilization  in  deadly  struggle  with  cruel, 
treacherous  barbarism.  We  cannot  advo- 
cate meeting  atrocity  with  atrocity,  nor  can 
we  forget  that  it  was  a  Christian  nation 
fighting  with  one  debased  and  infidel.  But 
terrible  surgery  is  sometimes  needed  to  ex- 
tirpate disease. 

Greed  for  territory,  and  wrong,  and  in- 
justice may  have  mingled  with  the  acquisi- 


l68       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

tion  of  an  Indian  Empire,  but  posterity  will 
see  only  a  majestic  uplifting  of  almost  a 
quarter  of  the  human  family  from  debased 
barbarism,  to  a  Christian  civilization;  and 
all  through  the  instrumentality  of  a  little 
band  of  trading  settlers  from  a  small  far- 
off  island  in  the  northwest  of  Europe. 

But  there  were  other  things  besides  fam- 
ine and  wars  taking  place  in  the  Kingdom 
of  the  young  Queen.  A  greater  and  a  sub- 
tler force  than  steam  had  entered  into  the 
life  of  the  people.  A  miracle  had  happened 
in  1858,  when  an  electric  wire  threaded  its 
way  under  the  Atlantic,  and  two  continents 
conversed  as  friends  sitting  hand  in  hand. 

Another  miracle  had  then  just  been 
achieved  in  the  discovery  of  certain  chem- 
ical conditions,  by  which  scenes  and  objects 
would  imprint  themselves  in  minutest  detail 
upon  a  prepared  surface.  A  sort  of  magic 
seemed  to  have  entered  into  life,  quickening 
and  intensifying  all  its  processes.  Enlarged 
knowledge  opened  up  new  theories  of  dis- 
ease and  created  a  new  Art  of  healing. 
Surgery,  with  its  unspeakable  anguish,  was 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       169 

rendered  painless  by  anaesthetics.  Mechan- 
ical invention  was  so  stimulated  that  all  the 
processes  of  labor  were  quickened  and  im- 
proved. 

In  1851  the  Prince  Consort  conceived  the 
idea  of  a  great  Exposition,  which  should 
under  one  roof  gather  all  the  fruits  of  this 
marvellous  advance,  and  Sydenham  Palace, 
a  gigantic  structure  of  glass  and  iron,  was 
erected. 

In  literature,  Tennyson  was  loreserving 
English  valor  in  immortal  verse.  Thack- 
eray and  Dickens,  in  prose  as  immortal, 
were  picturing  the  social  lights  and  shad- 
ows of  the  Victorian  Age. 

In  1861  a  crushing  blow  fell  upon  the 
Queen  in  the  death  of  the  Prince  Con- 
sort. America  treasures  kindly  memory  of 
Prince  Albert,  on  account  of  his  outspoken 
friendship  in  the  hour  of  her  need.  Dur- 
ing the  war  of  the  Rebellion,  while  the  fate 
of  our  country  seemed  hanging  in  the  bal- 
ance, we  had  few  friends  in  England,  where 
people  seemed  to  look  with  satisfaction 
upon  our  probable  dismemberment. 


17©       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

We  are  not  likely  to  forget  the  three 
shming  exceptions: — Prince  Albert — John 
Bright — and  John  Stuart  Mill. 

It  was  while  that  astute  diplomatist,  Dis- 
raeli (Lord  Beaconsfield)  was  Prime  Min- 
ister, that  French  money,  skill  and  labor 
opened  up  the  waterway  between  the  Med- 
iterranean and  the  Red  Sea.  It  would 
never  do  to  have  France  command  such  a 
strategic  point  on  the  way  to  the  East. 
England  was  alert.  She  lost  not  a  moment. 
The  impecunious  Khedive  was  offered  by 
telegraph  $20,000,000  for  his  interest  in  the 
Suez  Canal,  nearly  one-half  of  the  whole 
capital  stock.  The  offer  was  accepted  with 
no  less  alacrity  than  it  was  made.  So  with 
the  Arabian  Port  of  Aden,  which  she  al- 
ready possessed,  and  with  a  strong  enough 
financial  grasp  upon  impoverished  Egypt 
to  secure  the  right  of  way,  should  she  need 
it,  England  had  made  the  Canal  which 
France  had  dug,  practically  her  own. 

Lord  Beaconsfield  had  crowned  his  dra- 
matic and  picturesque  Ministerial  career 
by  placing  a  new  diadem  on  the  head  of  the 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       171 

widowed  Queen,  who  was  now  Empress  of 
India.  His  successor,  William  Ewart  Glad- 
stone, the  great  leader  of  the  Liberal  part^^, 
was  content  with  a  less  showy  field.  He 
had  in  1869  relieved  Ireland  from  the  un- 
just burden  of  supporting  a  Church  the 
tenets  of  which  she  considered  blasphem- 
ous; and  one  which  her  own,  the  Roman 
Catholic,  had  for  three  centuries  been  try- 
ing to  overthrow.  "We  cannot  wonder  that 
the  memory  of  a  tyranny  so  odious  is  not 
easily  effaced;  nor  that  there  is  less  grati- 
tude for  its  removal,  than  bitterness  that  it 
should  so  long  have  been.  It  is  certainly 
true  that  the  disestablishment  of  the  Eng- 
lish Church  in  Ireland  was  one  of  the  most 
righteous  acts  of  this  reign. 

The  Irish  question  is  such  a  tangled  web 
of  wrong  and  injustice  complicated  by  folly 
and  outrage,  that  the  wisest  and  best-inten- 
tioned  statesmanship  is  baffled.  "Whether 
the  conditions  would  be  improved  by  giving 
them  their  own  Parliament,  could  only  be 
determined  by  experiment ;  and  that  experi- 
ment England  is  not  yet  willing  to  try. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

A  FITTING  companion  to  tlie  Story  of 
England's  Empire  in  India,  is  that  of  her 
South  African  Colonial  Possessions. 

It  was  about  the  year  1652,  while  Oliver 
Cromwell's  star  was  highest  in  the  heavens, 
that  the  Dutch  East  India  Company,  need- 
ing a  resting  place  on  the  way  to  the  East, 
planted  the  germ  of  an  Empire  at  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope.  The  Portuguese,  those 
pioneers  in  exploration  had  only  lightly 
touched  this  uninviting  spot,  and  then  were 
away  chasing  rumors  of  gold. 

But  the  Hollanders  were  men  of  a  differ- 
ent sort.  They  asked  no  indulgences  from 
Nature;  and  when  their  roots  had  once 
grappled  the  soil,  however  disheartening 
the  conditions,  they  were  not  to  be  lured 
away  by  glistening  surfaces  farther  on. 
All  they  asked  was  a  place  on  which  to 


A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.        ITS 

grow.  And  so  with  stolid  persistence  they 
worked  away  in  a  field  the  least  promising 
ever  offered  to  human  endeavor. 

But  the  fates  befriended  them,  and  after 
the  Eevocation  of  the  "  Edict  of  Nantes," 
a  touch  of  grace  and  charm  was  brought 
into  their  sterile  life  by  the  arrival  of  three 
hundred  Huguenot  refugees.  xVnd  there, 
in  that  austere  land,  for  more  than  a  cen- 
tury these  children  from  Holland  and 
France  patiently  toiled,  and  with  mild  con- 
tent watched  their  grazing  cattle  as  they 
gradually  spread  over  a  huge  expanse  of 
territory;  their  only  reward  the  feeling 
that  this  barren  resting  place  on  the  way 
to  India  was  all  their  own,  and  that  they 
had  a  sense  of  independence  which  an- 
swered the  deepest  craving  in  their  hearts ; 
they  were  safe,  forever  safe  from  the  Old- 
World  tyrannies. 

But  there  was  another  nation  which  also 
needed  a  resting  place  on  the  way  to  India. 
Great  Britain,  following  closely  in  the  foot- 
steps of  Holland,  now  had  a  Greater  East 
India  Company,  and  a  larger  empire  grow- 


174       A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

ing  in  tlie  East.  And  clouds  began  to 
gather  over  the  Dutch  Colonists,  as  they 
saw  their  solitude  invaded  by  Old- World 
currents.  Perhaps  the  irritation  from  this 
made  them  quarrelsome;  for  temper  and 
tempermnent  have  been  two  most  important 
factors  in  the  story  of  the  Dutch  in  South 
Africa.  At  all  events,  there  were  various 
outbreaks  and  insurrections,  becoming  at 
last  so  serious  that  the  English  Govern- 
ment felt  impelled  to  aid  in  their  suppres- 
sion. And  this  they  did  so  effectually  that 
after  a  battle  with  the  local  forces  in  1806, 
they  were  virtual  rulers  of  Cape  Colony, 
which,  in  1814,  upon  the  payment  of  six 
million  pounds  to  the  Stadtholder,  was  for- 
mally ceded  to  Great  Britain. 

So,  by  right  of  conquest,  and  by  right  of 
purchase,  England  had  come  into  posses- 
sion (although  at  the  time  unaware  of  it) 
of  the  greatest  diamond  mines,  and  the  rich- 
est gold  mines  in  the  world.  And  it  had 
turned  out  that  the  Dutch  Colonists  for 
a  century  and  a  half  had  been  subduing 
man  and  nature  simply  to  enrich  the  Eng- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND,       175 

lish;  and  in  return  they  were  expected  to 
live  contentedly  and  peaceably  in  the  land 
tliey  had  made  habitable  for  human  occupa- 
tion ! 

Thus  two  contrasting  people  had  been 
carelessly  and  hastily  tossed  together.  The 
most  conservative  and  the  most  progressive 
of  nationalities  were  expected  to  fuse  their 
uncompromising  traits  into  a  harmonious 
whole.  The  result  should  have  been  easy  to 
foresee.  The  Dutch,  coerced  into  this  union, 
with  embittered  hearts  and  deep  sense  of  in- 
jur^^  after  twenty  unhappy,  stormy  years, 
determined  to  escape.  They  would  cross 
the  Orange  River  into  the  wilderness  and 
there  build  up  another  State,  which  should 
be  forever  their  own.  And  so,  in  the  year 
1835,  there  occurred  what  is  known  as  "  The 
Great  Trek,"  when  about  thirty  thousand 
men  and  women,  like  swarming  bees,  mi- 
grated in  a  body  into  the  region  north  of 
of  the  Orange  River,  later  spreading  east 
as  far  as  the  coast  in  what  is  now  "  Natal," 
the  whole  region  then  bearing  the  signifi- 
cant title:  "  The  Orange  Free  State." 


176       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

In  the  terms  of  tlie  purchase,  in  1814,  not 
a  word  had  been  said  about  this  Hinterland, 
the  vast  region  stretching  indefinitely  to- 
wards the  north ;  and  here  was  the  germ  of 
all  the  trouble  that  was  to  come.  Through 
an  oversight  there  existed  a  serious  flaw  in 
the  British  title,  which  would  severely  tax 
statesmanship,  diplomacy,  and  perhaps 
strain  national  morality  to  the  breaking 
point.  Had  this  people  the  right,  or  had 
they  not  the  right  to  plant  a  State  bearing 
a  foreign  flag,  which  should  effectually  bar 
the  path  to  the  north?  Should  the  English 
Government  allow  a  people  fiercely  antago- 
nistic to  itself  to  build  up  an  unfriendly 
State  on  its  border?  Such  were  the  ques- 
tions which  arose  then,  and  which  have 
been  variously  answered  since,  depending 
upon  the  point  of  view. 

If  the  question  had  been  what  ivould  hap- 
pen, there  would  have  been  greater  una- 
nimity in  the  replies !  And,  it  must  be  ac- 
knowledged, however  uncertain  the  claim 
to  this  disputed  region,  that  the  interests 
of  civilization  were  more  to  be  subserved  by 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       177 

British  than  by  Dutch  Sovereignty  in  South 
Africa. 

The  policies  of  these  two  people  were  ab- 
solutely opposed;  and  it  was  upon  the 
question  of  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves, 
at  the  time  of  the  Emancipation  Act,  in  1835, 
that  the  final  rupture  and  secession  took 
place.  These  slaves  constituted  a  large 
part  of  the  property  of  the  Boers;  and 
great  was  their  indignation  when  they  were 
compelled  to  accept  from  the  British  Gov- 
ernment a  compensation  for  their  property 
so  far  below  their  own  appraisal  of  its 
value  that  it  seemed  to  them  a  confiscation. 

Then  it  was  that  they  resolved  to  break 
away  from  their  oppressors,  and  go  where 
they  could  make  their  own  laws,  and  follow 
their  own  ideals  of  right  and  wrong.  And 
so  they  turned  their  backs  upon  the  scene 
of  their  long  toil. 

In  this  strange  exodus  not  the  least  im- 
portant person,  though  unobserved  then, was 
a  sturdylittle  fellow  ten  years  old, energetic- 
ally doing  his  part  in  rounding  up  the  cattle 
and  flocks  as  he  trudged  along  beside  the 


178       A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

huge  oxcarts.  His  name  was  Paul  Stepha- 
nus  Kruger.  And  this  little  man  also  took 
his  first  lesson  in  military  exploits  when 
one  hundred  and  thirty-five  Boer  farmers, 
by  ingenious  use  of  horses  and  rifles,  put 
to  flight  twelve  thousand  Metaheli  spears- 
men.  But  again  the  Boer  was  only  clearing 
the  way  for  British  occupation,  which,  com- 
mencing at  Natal  in  1842,  had,  by  1848,  ex- 
tended over  the  entire  Orange  Free  State. 
And  then  there  was  another  trek.  Again 
the  Boers  migrated,  this  time  crossing  the 
Eiver  Vaal,  and  founding  a  "  Transvaal 
Republic." 

In  the  history  of  the  next  thirty  years 
we  see  not  a  vacillating,  but  rather  a  ten- 
tative policy,  behind  which  was  always  an 
inflexible  purpose  to  establish  British  rule 
in  South  Africa,  peaceably,  if  possible,  or 
by  force,  if  compelled.  The  British  Gov- 
ernment was  tiying  to  bring  to  terms  the 
most  intractable  race  it  had  ever  dealt  with 
in  all  its  colonizing  experience.  The  thing 
which  embarrassed  the  English  was  that 
flaw  in  their  claim;  and  the  trouble  with 


A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.       179 

tlie  Boers  was  that  tlaey  were  archaic  in 
their  ideals,  and  obstructive  to  all  policies 
"which  belonged  to  a  modern  civilization. 
They  had  stopped  growing  when  they  left 
Holland.  The  emancipation  and  the  phil- 
anthro])ies  forced  upon  them  by  a  people 
who  were  stealing  their  land,  exasperated 
them,  and  outraged  their  sense  of  justice; 
and  when  the  English  punished  them  for 
cruelties  to  the  native  savages,  by  executing 
four  Boers,  vitriol  was  poured  upon  an 
open  wound,  and  peace  was  forever  impos- 
sible. 

In  1852  England,  in  placating  mood, 
yielded  the  local  control  of  the  Orange  Free 
State  and  the  Transvaal  Republic.  But  in 
less  than  five  years  the  Boers  had  thrown 
away  their  opportunity  by  strife  and  dis- 
cord among  themselves,  and  had  separated 
into  four  small  hostile  Republics,  which 
Paul  Stephanus  Kruger,  then  President  of 
the  Transvaal,  was  vainly  striving  to  bring 
together.  The  only  time  they  were  not  at 
war  with  each  other  was  when  they  were  all 
fighting  the  natives,  with  whom  they  never 
established  friendly  relations.     Perhaps  it 


iSo       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

is  asking  too  much  of  a  people  so  many 
times  emptied  from  one  region  into  another, 
to  have  established  internal  conditions,  eco- 
nomic and  political,  such  as  belong  to  or- 
dinary civilized  states.  But  the  condition 
of  disorder  had  become  such  that  the  Brit- 
ish Government  believed,  or  at  least  claimed 
to  beUeve,  that  as  a  measure  of  safety  to 
their  own  Colonies,  the  Transvaal  should  be 
annexed  to  the  Colony  at  the  Cape. 

The  people  were  cautiously  approached 
upon  this  subject,  and  even  some  of  the 
leaders  among  the  burghers  advocated  the 
measure  as  the  best,  and,  indeed,  only  thing 
possible  in  the  present  state  of  demoraliza- 
tion. 

So,  in  1877,  the  annexation  was  effected. 
The  Transvaal  Republic  was  taken  under 
the  sovereignty  of  Queen  Victoria. 

By  a  treaty  drawn  up  in  1881,  it  was  de- 
clared to  be  a  self-governing,  although  not 
an  independent  State.  In  all  its  foreign  re- 
lations it  was  subject  to  the  Suzerainty  of 
Her  Majesty  Queen  Victoria.  In  other 
words,  it  was  a  vassal  State. 


A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND.        iSi 

In  that  one  word  Suzerain  there  lurked 
the  germ  of  a  great  war.  In  a  revision  of 
the  terms  of  agreement  made  by  the  British, 
in  1884,  this  word,  which  was  to  play  such 
an  important  part  was  omitted ;  whether  by 
accident  or  design  cannot  be  said.  But  the 
Executive  Council  of  the  Republic  saw 
their  opportunity,  and  claimed  that  the 
omission  of  the  word  was  virtually  a  re- 
linquishment of  the  claim,  and  an  admis- 
sion that  the  South  African  Republic  was 
an  independent  and  sovereign  State. 

Lord  Derby,  Minister  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs, replied  that  no  such  significance 
could  be  attached  to  the  omission  in  the 
amended  treaty;  that  the  word  Suzerain 
was  not  employed  simply  because  it  was 
vague  and  indefinite  in  its  meaning ;  where- 
as, the  rights  claimed  by  the  British  were 
not  vague,  but  precise  and  definite.  These 
distinctly  forbade  the  South  African  Re- 
public from  concluding  any  treaty  with  a 
foreign  power.  And  as  such  power  icas 
vested  in  the  Queen,  as  a  matter  of  course 
it  followed  that  the  South  African  Repub- 


l82       A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

lie  was  not  a  sovereign  and  independent 
State. 

While  this  diplomatic  eontroversy  was 
proceeding,  other  and  less  formal  agencies 
were  at  work.  The  Transvaal,  rich  in  re- 
sources beyond  all  expectation,  was  being 
developed  by  British  capital,  without  which 
nothing  could  have  been  done.  The  Uit- 
landers,  (or"Outlanders"),as  these  English- 
bom  men  were  called,  complained  that,  in- 
stead of  cooperating  with  them  in  this  la- 
bor, which  must  result  in  the  common  good, 
everything  possible  was  done  to  embarrass 
and  paralyze  their  efforts.  Chief  among 
the  long  list  of  grievances  was  the  claim 
that,  while  they  were  the  principal  tax- 
payers, they  were  denied  representation, 
and  that  as  they  furnished  the  capital  for 
all  the  financial  enterprises,  it  was  but  fair 
that  they  should  have  the  franchise  which 
was  stubbornly  withheld  from  them. 

Out  of  these  conditions  came  the  "  Jame- 
son Raid,"  the  most  discreditable  incident 
in  the  whole  South  African  story;  an  inci- 
dent which  cast  a  cloud  of  suspicion  over 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       183 

tliG  entire  British  attitude,  and  enlisted 
wide-spread  sympathy  for  the  Boers.  Un- 
der the  leadership  of  Dr.  Jameson,  a  gentle- 
man closely  associated  with  Cecil  Khodes 
in  the  South  African  Chartered  Company, 
an  attempt  was  made  to  overthrow  the 
Kruger  Government,  and,  to  obtain  by  force 
the  redress  denied  by  x^eaceable  means. 

When  a  revolt  rises  to  the  plane  of  a 
revolution  it  becomes  respectable.  The 
"  Jameson  Raid  "  never  reached  that  ele- 
vation. In  less  than  four  days  the  entire 
force  had  surrendered  and  the  leaders  were 
under  arrest.  The  attempt  upon  Johannes- 
burg, and  the  acts  of  violence  attending  it, 
were  denounced  in  unmeasured  teiTns  by 
the  British  Government.  Dr.  Jameson  and 
his  chief  abettors  were  tried  in  England, 
and  sentenced  to  various  terms  of  imprison- 
ment; four  other  prominent  leaders — one 
of  them  an  American — had  sentence  of 
death  passed  upon  them  by  a  judge  from 
the  Orange  Free  State,  which  was  finally 
remitted  upon  the  pajmient  of  a  large  sum 
to  the  South  African  Eepublic.     England 


184       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

did  lier  best  to  rehabilitate  her  name  in  the 
estimation  of  the  world;  and  when  the  de- 
plorable affair  was  over,  it  had  done  im- 
mense injury  to  the  English  cause,  and 
benefited  not  a  little  that  of  the  Republic. 

Diplomatic  negotiations  were  then  re- 
sumed; Sir  Alfred  Milner  presenting  the 
British  view,  urged  the  propriety  of  grant- 
ing to  foreign-born  residents  the  franchise ; 
also  the  abolishment  of  certain  monopolies 
which  pressed  heavily  upon  the  miners,  and 
last,  but  not  least,  that  the  sovereignty  of 
Great  Britian  over  the  Transvaal,  receive 
official  recognition. 

This  latter  President  Kruger  flatly  re- 
jected, upon  the  ground  that  the  question 
of  sovereignty  had  already  been  disposed 
of  in  1884,  when  Great  Britain  virtually 
abandoned  the  claim  by  omitting  the  word 
Suzerain,  or  any  reference  to  what  it  im- 
plied, from  the  amended  agreement;  offer- 
ing at  the  same  time  to  submit  the  other 
demands  to  arbitration. 

On  October  9,  1899,  while  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain was  preparing  new  proposals,  an 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       185 

ultimatum  was  received  from  President 
Kruger,  demanding  an  affirmative  answer 
within  forty-eight  hours;  failing  in  which, 
it  would  be  considered  a  virtual  declaration 
of  war.  Sir  Alfred  Milner  replied :  "  You 
will  inform  your  Government  that  the  con- 
ditions demanded  are  such  as  Her  Ma- 
jesty's Government  deem  it  impossible  to 
discuss." 

On  the  afternoon  of  October  11th,  the 
war  had  commenced,  with  General  BuUer 
in  command  of  the  British  forces,  and 
General  Joubert,  aided  by  General  Cronje, 
commanding  the  Boers. 

Before  November  2d  three  serious  en- 
gagements had  taken  place,  and  the  Eng- 
lish had  been  compelled  to  fall  back  upon 
their  base  of  supplies  at  Ladysmith,  where, 
after  an  ineffectual  sortie  on  October  30th, 
they  were  surrounded  and  their  communi- 
cations cut  off. 

The  campaign  continued  to  be  a  story  of 
humiliating  defeats  until  December,  when 
Lord  Roberts  assumed  supreme  command, 
with  Lord  Kitchener  as  his  chief  of  staff. 


1 86       A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

England  thoroughly  aroused  was  sending 
men  and  supplies  in  unstinted  measure  for 
the  great  emergency,  and  the  world  looked 
on  in  amazement  as  200,000  British  soldiers 
under  the  greatest  British  commanders 
were  kept  at  bay  for  something  less  than 
three  years  by  30,000  untrained  Boers. 
The  British  Governm.ent  had  forgotten 
that  these  South  African  colonists  were 
the  children  of  a  French  Huguenot  an- 
cestry which  had  defied  Louis  XIV.,  and  of 
the  men  who  cut  the  dykes  when  the  Neth- 
erlands were  invaded  by  that  same  tyrant. 
Some  one  had  wittily  said  that  no  mem- 
ber of  the  Cabinet  should  be  allowed  to 
cast  his  vote  for  the  war,  until  he  had 
read  Motley's  "Rise  of  the  Dutch  Repub- 
lic." And,  indeed,  it  appeared  to  many 
that  the  view  of  the  Government  was  fo- 
cussed  upon  one  single  point,  the  establish- 
ing of  British  authority  at  any  cost  in 
South  Africa.  At  the  same  time  many 
eminent  Englishmen  believed  it  was  not 
to  be  expected  that  a  community  so  long 
established  in  a  home  of  its  own  choos- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       187 

tng,  should  upon  demand  be  ready  to  bo- 
stow  upon  foreigners  all  the  rights  of  citi- 
zenship; and  many  also  believed  that  the 
grievances  of  the  "  Outlanders  "  were  not 
greater  than  ordinarily  existed  when  a  mass 
of  foreign  immigrants  were  pressing  in 
upon  a  people  who  suspected  and  disliked 
them.  The  sympathy  of  foreign  states  was 
strongly  with  the  Boers;  and  in  England 
itself  the  cause  evoked  a  languid  enthusi- 
asm, until  aroused  by  disaster,  and  until 
the  pride  of  the  nation  was  touched  by  loss 
of  prestige.  The  danger,  the  enormous  dif- 
ficulties to  be  overcome,  the  privations  and 
suffering  of  their  boys,  these  were  the 
things  which  awoke  the  dormant  enthusi- 
asm in  the  heart  of  the  nation.  And  when 
the  only  son  of  Lord  Roberts  had  been  of- 
fered as  a  sacrifice,  and  then  a  son  of  Lord 
Dufferin,  and  then.  Prince  Victor,  October 
29,  1900,  gi-andson  of  the  Queen  herself, 
the  cause  had  become  sacred,  and  one  for 
which  any  loyal  Briton  would  be  willing 
to  die. 

By  September  1,  1900,  the  Orange  Free 


l88       A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

State  and  the  Transvaal  had  been  for- 
mally proclaimed  by  Lord  Roberts,  "  Col- 
onies of  the  British  Empire," 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  end,  and 
when  the  victorious  commander  (December 
2,  1900)  arrived  in  England  amid  the  plau- 
dits of  a  grateful  nation,  the  victory  was 
practically  won,  and  the  time  was  at  hand 
when  not  far  from  twenty  thousand  British 
soldiers  would  be  lying  under  the  sod  six 
thousand  miles  away,  in  a  land,  which  no 
longer  disputed  the  sovereignty  of  Eng- 
land! 

We  have  yet  to  see  whether  the  South 
African  colonial  possessions  have  been  paid 
for  too  dearly,  with  nine  fierce  Kaffir  wars 
(another  threatening  as  this  is  written), 
and  the  blood  of  princes,  peers,  and  com- 
moners poured  as  if  it  were  water  into 
the  African  soil.  Is  England  richer  or 
poorer  for  this  outpouring  of  blood  and 
treasure!  Has  she  risen  or  fallen  in  the 
estimation  of  the  world,  as  she  uncovers 
her  stores  of  gold  and  diamonds  among 
those  valiant  but  defeated  Boers,  sullenly 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       189 

brooding  over  the  past,  with  no  love  in  their 
hearts. 

Not  the  least  pitiful  incident  in  the  whole 
stoiy  was  the  voluntary  exile  of  the  man 
who  had  been  the  brain  and  soul  of  the 
South  African  Republics.  Indeed,  the  life 
of  Paul  Kruger,  from  the  day  when  he 
trudged  beside  the  bullocks  at  the  time  of 
the  great  northward  trek,  until  he  died  a 
disappointed,  embittered  old  man,  a  fugi- 
tive and  an  exile,  seems  an  epitome  of  the 
cause  to  which  his  life  was  devoted. 

No  story  of  this  war,  however  brief,  can 
omit  the  name  of  De  Wet,  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  the  Boer  generals,  and  per- 
haps the  one  genius,  certainly  the  most  ro- 
mantic figure  in  the  whole  drama.  It  was 
De  Wet's  faculty  for  disappearing  and  re- 
appearing at  unexpected  place  and  mo- 
ment which  prolonged  the  war  even  after 
the  end  was  inevitable,  thus  justifying  the 
title  "  Three  Years'  War,"  which  he  gave  to 
a  subsequent  history  of  the  conflict. 

The  dedication  to  this  book  bears  pa- 
thetic testimony   to  the   character  of   the 


190       A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND. 

man:  ^^  This  work  is  dedicated  to  my  fel- 
loic-suhjects  of  the  British  EmpireJ^  Wlien 
one  reflects  what  these  words  meant  for  De 
"Wet,  one  is  inclined  to  believe  that  his 
highest  heroism  was  not  attained  on  the 
battle  field ! 


CHAPTER   XV 

In  less  than  three  weeks  after  the  return 
of  Lord  Eoberts,  and  the  agitating  inter- 
view for  which  she  had  been  impatiently 
waiting,  England's  beloved  Queen  suc- 
cumbed to  a  brief  illness,  and  died  January 
22,  1901. 

Her  son  Albert  Edward  was  immediately 
proclaimed  King  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land. 

The  change  of  Sovereigns  has  not  mate- 
rially altered  the  course  of  events  in  the 
Empire.  The  King,  with  much  dignity  and 
seriousness,  assumed  the  responsibilities  of 
his  great  inheritance,  and  England  seems 
to  be  in  safekeeping.  The  terms  finally 
agreed  upon  at  the  Peace  Conference,  in 
May,  1902,  bear  the  signature  of  Edward 
Ilex,   instead   of   Victoria   Regina — a   sig- 


192       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

nature  tliat  peace-loving  Sovereign  would 
so  gladly  have  affixed. 

In  the  year  1904  a  British  military  force 
entered  the  hitherto  sacred  domain  of  Tibet 
with  the  avowed  purpose  of  obtaining  re- 
dress from  Tibetan  authorities  for  having 
violated  a  commercial  agreement  made  be- 
tween China  and  British  India  in  1893; 
which  convention  was  binding  upon  Tibet 
as  a  vassal  State  to  China.  In  addition  to 
this,  a  letter  from  the  Viceroy  of  India  to 
the  Grand  Lama,  had  been  returned  un- 
opened, which,  it  was  claimed,  was  an  insult 
to  the  King  he  represents. 

The  time  selected  for  this  hostile  demon- 
stration, when  the  Russo-Japanese  War 
fully  engaged  the  attention  of  the  nations 
chiefly  interested,  was,  to  say  the  least,  sig- 
nificant ;  and  some  were  so  unkind  as  to  in- 
sinuate that  the  recently  discovered  mineral 
wealth  of  this  lofty  plateau — "  this  Roof 
of  the  World " — was,  like  that  of  the 
Transvaal  in  South  Africa,  a  factor  in  this 
sudden  romantic  adventure. 

Nature  has  guarded  well  this  home  of 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.       193 

mystery ;  a  vast  plateau,  from  10,000  to  15,- 
000  feet  above  the  sea-level  is  held  aloft 
upon  the  giant  shoulders  of  the  Himalaya, 
surrounded  by  deep  valleys  filled  in  with 
the  detritus  of  an  older  world.  This  inac- 
cessible spot  is  the  home  of  the  Grand 
Lama,  the  earthly  representative  of 
Buddha,  and  Lhassa  is  the  Holy  City 
where  this  sacred  being  resides,  a  city 
never  profaned  by  infidel  feet  until  the 
morning  of  Aug-ust  4,  1904,  when  it  fell, 
and  was  desecrated  by  the  presence  of  red- 
coated  soldiers,  and  the  blare  of  military 
bands,  and  still  worse  the  plundering  of 
treasure-houses  and  monasteries. 

It  was  a  rude  awakening  from  the  slum- 
ber of  centuries!  The  Western  mind  can 
scarcely  realize  how  seriously  this  has 
wounded  the  sensibilities  of  millions  of 
people  throughout  the  East;  and  the  ques- 
tion arises  whether  England  may  not  some 
day  have  to  pay  more  dearly  than  now  ap- 
pears for  the  concessions  she  has  obtained. 

The  treaty  in  its  early  form  throws  light 
upon  the  results  expected  when  the  expedi- 


194       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

tion  was  planned.  It  bound  the  Tibetan 
authorities  to  establish  British  markets  at 
certain  designated  points;  and  stipulated 
that,  without  the  consent  of  Great  Britain, 
no  Tibetan  territory  could  be  leased  to  any- 
foreign  power.  Of  course  many  people 
could  see  in  this  the  ultimate  purpose  of  a 
British  occupation  of  Tibet,  and  an  open 
way  to  the  Yangtse  Valley  1 

But  with  the  Russo-Japanese  Yv'ar  over, 
and  Russia  free  to  exert  her  control  over 
China,  a  stand  was  taken  by  the  Chinese 
Government  which  has  resulted  in  m.odify- 
ing  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  which  has 
recently  been  signed  at  Pekin,  by  which 
Great  Britain  affirms  that  she  does  not 
seek  for  herself  any  privileges  which  are 
denied  to  any  other  state  or  the  subjects 
thereof. 

Two  very  important  measures  have  been 
under  consideration  during  the  new  reign; 
one  of  these  seeming  to  have  afforded  a  so- 
lution for  the  Land-problem  in  Ireland, 
which  has  for  so  long  been  the  nightmare 
of  British  politics.    Further  details  of  this 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.        195 

will  be  found  in  the  "  History  of  Ireland," 
separately  treated  in  this  volume. 

The  other  measure  deals  with  the  ques- 
tion of  Education,  and  is  an  attempt  to 
solve  to  the  satisfaction  of  Nonconform- 
ists, Catholics,  Church-of-England  people, 
and  people  of  no  church  at  all,  whether 
there  shall  be  any  religious  instruction  in 
the  schools  for  which  all  are  taxed,  and  if 
so  what  shall  be  its  nature  and  restrictions. 

The  tendency  since  1870  has  been  stead- 
ily toward  the  method  adopited  by  the 
United  States,  i.  e.,  a  severance  of  the  civil 
commnnity  from  all  responsibility  for  re- 
ligious teaching.  And  such  is  the  tendency 
of  the  Bill  now  before  the  House  of  Lords, 
But  it  is  believed  that  that  consei-vative 
body  will  hesitate  long  before  giving  up 
such  a  cherished  and  time-encrusted  prin- 
ciple as  is  involved. 

So  many  Parliamentary  reforms  have 
been  accomplished  since  tlie  time  they  com- 
menced in  1832,  the  time  seems  not  far  dis- 
tant when  there  will  be  little  more  for  Lib- 
erals to  urge,  or  for  Conservatives  and  the 


196       A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 

House  of  Lords  to  obstruct.  Monarchy  iiS 
absolutely  shorn  of  its  dangers.  The  House 
of  Commons,  which  is  the  actual  ruling 
IDOwer  of  the  Kingdom,  is  only  the  expres- 
sion of  the  popular  will. 

We  are  accustomed  to  regard  American 
freedom  as  the  one  supreme  type.  But  it  is 
not.  The  popular  will  in  England  reaches 
the  springs  of  Government  more  freely, 
more  swiftly,  and  more  imperiously,  than 
it  does  in  Eepublican  America.  It  comes  as 
a  stern  mandate,  which  must  be  obeyed  on 
the  instant.  The  King  of  England  has  less 
power  than  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  The  President  can  form  a  definite 
policy,  select  his  own  Ministry  to  carry  it 
out,  and  to  some  extent  have  his  own  way 
for  four  years,  whether  the  people  like  it  or 
not.  The  King  cannot  do  this  for  a  day. 
His  Ministry  cannot  stand  an  hour,  with  a 
policy  disapproved  by  the  Commons.  Not 
since  Anne  has  a  sovereign  refused  signa- 
ture to  an  Act  of  Parliament.  The  Georges, 
and  William  IV.,  continued  to  exercise  the 
power    of    dismissing    Ministers    at   their 


A   SHORT  HISTORY   OP  ENGLAND         197 

pleasure.  But  since  Victoria,  an  unwritten 
law  forbids  it,  and  with  this  vanishes  the 
last  remnant  of  a  personal  Gouernment. 
The  end  long  sought  is  attained. 

The  history  of  no  other  people  affords 
such  an  illustration  of  a  steadily  progres- 
sive national  development  from  seed  to 
blossom,  compelled  by  one  persistent  force. 
Freedom  in  England  has  not  been  wrought 
by  cataclysm  as  in  France,  but  has  un- 
folded like  a  plant  from  a  life  within;  im- 
peded and  arrested  sometimes,  but  pa- 
tiently biding  its  time,  and  then  steadily 
and  irresistibly  pressing  outward;  one  leaf 
after  another  freeing  itself  from  the  de- 
taining force.  Only  a  few  more  remain  to 
be  unclosed,  and  we  shall  behold  the  con- 
summate flower  of  fourteen  centuries; — 
centuries  in  which  the  most  practical  nation 
in  the  world  has  steadily  pursued  an  ideal — 
the  ideal  of  individual  freedom  subordi- 
nated only  to  the  good  of  the  whole  I 


A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


The  history  of  prehistoric  Ireland  as  told 
ill  ancient  chronicles,  easily  proves  the 
Irish  to  be  the  oldest  nation  in  Europe, 
mingling  their  story  with  those  not  alone  of 
Egypt,  Troy,  Greece,  and  Rome,  but  with 
that  of  Noah  and  the  antediluvian  world. 
Who  was  the  Lady  Cassair,  who  tied  with 
her  household  to  Ireland  from  the  coming 
deluge  after  being  refused  shelter  by  Noah? 
and  who  Nemehd,  the  next  colonist  from  the 
East,  who  heads  the  royal  procession  of  one 
hundred  and  eighteen  kings?  and  who,  above 
all,  is  Milesius,  who  comes  fresh  from  the 
lingual  disaster  at  Shinar,  the  divinely  ap- 
pointed ruler,  bringing  with  him  his  Egyp- 
tian wife  Scota  (Pharaoh's  daughter)  and  her 
son  Gael?  and  who  that  other  son  Heber, 
whose  name  was  given  to  the  original  lingua 
Jiumana  (the  Hebrew),  in  honor  of  his  efforts 
to  prevent  the  blasphemous  building  of  Ba- 


200        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

bel?  For  what  do  these  shadowy  figures 
stand,  looming  out  of  formless  mist  and  chaos, 
and  bestowing  their  names  as  imperishable 
memorials  ?  —  Scotia,  Scots,  Gaelic, —  the 
word  Gaelic  in  its  true  significance  includ- 
ing Ireland  and  Scotland.  Even  the  name 
Fenian  takes  on  a  venerable  dignity  when 
we  learn  that  Fenius,  the  Scythian  King, 
and  father  of  Milesius,  established  the  first 
university — a  sort  of  school  of  languages 
— for  the  study  of  the  seventy-two  new  vari- 
eties of  human  speech,  appointing  seventy- 
two  wise  men  to  master  this  new  and  trouble- 
some branch  of  human  knowledge  !  We  are 
told  that  Heber  and  Heremon,  the  sons  of 
Milesius,  finally  divided  the  island  between 
them,  and  then,  after  the  fashion  of  Ro- 
mulus, Heber  drove  the  factious  Heremon 
over  the  sea  into  the  land  of  the  Picts,  and 
reigned  alone  over  the  Scots  in  Ireland. 

The  sober  truth  seems  to  be  that  Ireland, 
at  a  very  early  period,  was  known  to  the 
Greeks  as  lerne  (from  which  comes  Erin), 
and  later  to  the  Romans  as  Hibernia.  At  a 
very  remote  time  it  seems  to  have  been  colon- 
ized by  Greek  and  other  Eastern  peoples, 
who  left  a  deep  impress  upon  the  Celtic  race 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.        2ci 

alread}^  inliabiting  the  island ;  but  an  im- 
press upon  the  mind,  not  the  life,  of  the 
Celts,  for  no  vestige  of  Greek  or  other  civili- 
zation, except  in  language  and  in  ideals,  has 
ever  been  found  in  Ireland.  The  onl}'  archsBO- 
logical  remains  are  cromlechs,  which  tell  of 
a  Druidical  worship,  and  the  round  towers, 
belonging  to  a  much  later  period,  whose 
purpose  is  only  conjectured. 

Ireland's  Aryan  parentage  is  plainly  in- 
dicated in  its  primitive  social  organization 
and  system  of  laws.  The  familj^  was  the 
social  unit,  and  the  clan  or  sept  was  only 
a  larger  family.  Pre-Christian  Ireland  was 
divided  into  five  septs :  Munster,  Connaught, 
Ulster,  Leinster,  and  Meath.  Each  of  these 
tribal  divisions  was  governed  by  a  chief 
or  king,  who  was  the  head  of  the  clan  (or 
family).  Among  these,  the  chief-king,  or 
Ard  lieagh,  resided  at  Tara  in  Meath,  and 
received  allegiance  from  the  other  four,  with 
no  jurisdiction,  however,  over  the  internal 
affairs  of  the  other  kingdoms.  There  was  a 
perpetual  strife  between  the  clans.  Outside 
of  one's  own  tribal  limits  was  the  enemy's 
country.  The  business  of  life  was  maraud- 
ing and  plundering,  and  the  greatest  hero 


202        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

was  he  wlio  could  accomplisli  these  things 
by  deeds  of  the  greatest  daring. 

All  alike  lived  under  a  simple  code  of  laws 
administered  by  a  hereditary  class  of  jurists 
called  Brehons.  All  offences  were  punish- 
able by  a  system  of  fines  called  erics.  The 
land  was  owned  by  the  clan.  Primogeniture 
was  unknown,  and  the  succession  to  the 
office  of  chief  was  determined  by  the  clan, 
which  had  power  to  select  any  one  within 
the  family  lines  as  Tanist  or  successor.  This 
in  "Brehon  Law"  is  known  as  the  "laAv  of 
Tanistry,"  and  was  closely  interwoven  with 
the  later  history  of  Ireland.  But  the  class 
more  exalted  than  kings  or  brehons  was  the 
Bards.  These  were  inspired  singers,  before 
whom  Brehons  quailed  and  kings  meekly 
bowed  their  heads. 

During  the  Roman  occupation  of  Britain 
in  which  that  country  was  Christianized, 
pagan  Ireland  heard  nothing  of  the  new- 
evangel  almost  at  her  door.  But  in  432,  after 
Britain  had  relapsed  into  paganism,  St.  Pat- 
rick came  into  the  darkened  isle.  If  ever 
Pentecostal  fires  descended  upon  a  nation  it 
was  in  those  sixty  years  during  which  one 
saintly  man  transformed  a  people  from  brut- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.        203 

isli  paganism  to  Christianity,  and  converted 
Ireland  into  the  torch-bearer  and  nourisher 
of  intellectual  and  spiritual  life,  so  that  as 
the  gotliic  night  was  settling  upon  Europe, 
the  centre  of  illumination  seemed  to  be  pass- 
ing from  Home  to  Ireland.  Their  missionaries 
were  in  Britain,  Germany,  Gaul ;  and  students 
from  Charlemagne's  dominions,  and  the  sons 
of  kings  from  other  lands,  flocked  to  those 
stone  monasteries,  the  remains  of  which  are 
still  to  be  seen  upon  the  Irish  coast,  and 
which  were  then  the  acknowledged  centres  of 
learning  in  Europe.  It  was  not  until  late  in 
the  ninth  century  that  Ireland  played  a  truly 
great  part  in  European  history.  Rome  be- 
came jealous  of  these  fiery  Christians  ;  they 
had  never  worn  her  yoke,  and  concerned 
themselves  little  about  the  Pope.  They  had 
their  own  views  about  the  shape  of  the  ton- 
sure, and  also  their  own  time  for  celebrating 
Easter,  which  was  heretical  and  contuma- 
cious, and  there  began  a  struggle  between 
Roman  and  Western  Christianity.  The  pas- 
sion for  art  and  letters  which  accompanied 
this  spiritual  birth  makes  this,  indeed,  a 
Golden  Age.  But  the  painting  of  missals, 
and  study  of  Greek  poetry  and  philosophy, 


204        A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRJELAXD. 

brought  no  change  in  the  life  of  the  people. 
It  ^-as  for  the  learned,  and  a  subject  for  just 
pride  in  retrospect.  But  the  Christianized 
septs  fought  each  other  as  before,  and  life 
was  no  less  wild  and  disordered  than  it  had 
always  been. 

In  the  eighth  century  the  first  viking  ap- 
peared. It  was  th-n  that  a  master-spirit 
arose,  a  man  of  the  clan  of  O'Bv'K^n—Briari 
Bora.  He  drove  out  the  Danes,  usurped  the 
place  of  Chief-King,  and  reigned  in  the  Halls 
of  Tara  for  a  few  years,  then  left  his  land  to 
lapse  once  more  into  a  chaos  of  tighiing  clans. 
But  it  was  H-rmot.  the  King  of  Leinster, 
whose  fatal  quarrel  l^^d  to  the  subjugation  of 
the  land  to  England.  The  Irish  epic,  like 
that  of  Troy,  has  its  Paris  and  H-l^n.  If 
that  fierce  old  man  had  not  fallen  in  love 
with  the  wife  of  the  Lord  of  Brefny  and  car- 
ried her  away,  there  might  have  been  a  dif- 
ferent story  to  tell.  The  injured  husband 
made  war  ujion  him.  in  which  the  Chief- 
King  took  part,  and  so  hot  was  it  made  for 
the  wife-stealer,  that  he  offered  to  place  Lein- 
ster at  the  feet  of  Henry  II.  in  r^^turn  for  as- 
sistance. A  party  of  adventurous  barons, 
led  by   Strongbovr,  the  Earl  of  Pembroke, 


A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRELAXD.        205 

rushed  to  Dermot's  rescue,  defeated  the 
Chief-King,  drove  the  Danes  out  of  Dublin, 
which  they  had  founded,  and  took  posses- 
sion of  that  city  themselves.  Henry  II.  fol- 
lowed up  the  unauthorized  raid  of  his  barons 
with  a  well-equipped  army,  which  he  him- 
self led,  landing  upon  the  Irish  coast  in 
1171. 

The  conquest  was  soon  complete,  and 
Henry  proceeded  to  organize  his  new  terri- 
tory, dividing  it  into  counties,  and  setting 
up  law-courts  at  Dublin,  which  was  chosen 
as  the  Seat  of  his  Lord-Deputy.  The  system 
of  English  law  was  established  for  the  use 
of  the  Xorman  barons  and  English  settlers, 
the  natives  being  allowed  to  live  under  their 
old  system  of  Brehon  laws.  Henry  gave 
huge  grants  of  land  with  feudal  rights  to  his 
barons,  then  returned  to  his  own  troubled 
kingdom,  leaving  them  to  establish  their 
claims  and  settle  accounts  with  the  Irish 
chieftains  as  best  they  could.  The  sword 
was  the  argument  used  on  both  sides,  and 
a  conllict  between  the  brehon  and  feudal 
systems  had  commenced  which  still  contin- 
ues in  Ireland.  If  Henry  had  expected  to 
convert  Irishmen  into  Englishmen,  he  had 


2o6        A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

miscalculated  ;  it  was  the  reverse  which 
happened — the  Norman-English  were  slowly 
but  surely  converted  into  Irishmen,  and  two 
elements  were  thereafter  side  by  side,  the 
Old  Irish  and  the  Anglo-Irish,  who,  however 
antagonistic,  had  always  a  certain  commun- 
ity of  interest  which  drew  them  together  in 
great  emergencies. 

It  is  an  easy  task  to  describe  a  storm 
which  has  one  centre.  But  how  is  one  to 
describe  the  confused  play  of  forces  in  a 
cyclone  which  has  centres  within  centres? 
Irish  chieftains  at  war  with  Irish  chieftains, 
jealous  Norman  barons  with  Norman  bar- 
ons, all  at  the  same  time  in  deadly  struggle 
with  O'Neills,  O'Connells,  and  O'Briens, 
who  would  never  cease  to  fight  for  the  terri- 
tory which  had  been  torn  from  them  ;  and  yet 
each  and  all  of  these  ready  in  a  desperate 
crisis  to  combine  for  the  preservation  of  Ire- 
land. In  this  chaos  the  territorial  barons 
were  the  framework  of  the  structure.  The 
grants  bestowed  by  Henry  II.  had  created,  in 
fact,  a  group  of  small  principalities.  These 
were  called  Palatinates,  and  the  power  of 
the  Lords  Palatine  was  almost  without  limit. 
Each  was  a  king  in  his  own  little  kingdom 


A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.         207 

— could  make  war  upon  his  neighborss,  and 
recruit  his  army  from  liis  own  vassals.  It 
was  the  Geraldines  who  played  the  most  his- 
toric part  among  these  Palatines,  the  houses 
of  Kildare  and  Desmond  both  being  branches 
of  this  famous  Norman  family,  which  was 
always  in  high  favor  with  the  English  sover- 
eign, and  always  at  war  with  the  rival  house 
of  Orniond,  the  next  most  powerful  Anglo- 
Norman  family,  descended  from  Thomas  a 
Becket.  These  barons,  or  "Lords  of  the 
Pale,"  were,  of  course,  supposed  to  be  the 
intermediaries  for  the  King's  authority. 
But  the  Geraldines  seem  to  have  found 
plenty  of  time  to  build  up  their  own  fort- 
unes, and  as  peace  with  their  neighbors  was 
sometimes  more  conducive  to  that  pursuit, 
alliances  with  native  chiefs  and  marriages 
with  their  daughters  had  in  time  made  of 
them  pretty  good  Irishmen. 

Bat  our  main  purpose  is  not  to  follow 
the  fortunes  of  these  picturesque  and  roman 
tic  robbers  who  considered  all  Ireland  their 
legitimate  prey,  but  rather  those  of  the  hap- 
less native  population,  dispossessed  of  their 
homes,  hiding  in  forests  and  morasses,  and 
whom  it  was  the  policy  of  the  English  Gov- 


2o8        A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

ernment  to  efface  in  their  own  country. 
These  pages  will  tell  of  many  efforts  to  com- 
pel loyalty,  but  not  one  effort  to  zoin  the 
loyalty  of  the  Irish  people  is  recorded  in 
history  !  No  race  in  the  world  is  more  sus- 
ceptible to  kindness  and  more  easily  reached 
by  personal  influences,  and  there  are  none 
of  whom  a  passionate  loyalty  is  more  char- 
acteristic. What  might  have  been  the  effect 
of  a  policy  of  kindness  instead  of  exaspera- 
tion, we  can  only  guess.  But  we  can  all  see 
plainly  enough  the  disastrous  results  which 
have  come  from  pouring  vitriol  upon  open 
wounds,  and  from  treating  a  nation  as  if 
they  were  not  only  intruders  but  outlaws  in 
their  own  land. 

Listen  to  the  Statutes  of  Kilkenny,  passed 
by  an  obedient  Parliament  at  a  time  when 
Edward  III.  was  depending  upon  sinewy, 
clean-limbed  young  Irishmen  to  fight  his 
battles  in  France  and  help  him  to  win 
Crecy.  (Which  they  did.)  These  are  some 
of  the  provisions  of  the  statute :  Marriage 
between  English  and  Irish  is  punishable  by 
death  in  most  terrible  form.  It  is  high 
treason  to  give  horses,  goods,  or  weapons  of 
any  sort  to  the  Irish.     War  with  the  natives 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.        209 

is  binding  upon  good  colonists.  To  sj^eak 
the  language  of  the  country  is  a  penal 
offence,  and  the  killing  of  an  Irishman  is  not 
to  be  reckoned  as  a  crime. 

But  in  spite  of  the  ferocity  of  her  purpose, 
England  grew  lax.  She  had  great  wars  on 
her  hands,  and  more  important  interests  to 
look  after.  Things  were  left  to  the  Geral- 
dines,  and  to  the  Irish  Parliament,  which 
was  controlled  by  the  Lords  of  the  Pale. 
Intermarriages,  against  wliicli  horrible  penal- 
ties had  once  been  enforced,  had  become 
frequent,  and  many  dispossessed  chiefs,  not- 
ably the  O'Neills,  had  recovered  their  own 
lands.  So,  when  Henry  VII.  came  to  the 
throne,  although  the  Norman  banners  had 
for  three  centuries  floated  over  Ireland,  the 
English  territory,  "the  Pale,"  was  really 
reduced  to  a  small  area  about  Dublin. 

Henry  VII.  determined  to  change  all  this. 
Sir  Edward  Poynings  came  charged  with 
a  mission,  and  Parliament  passed  an  Act 
called  Poynings  Act,  by  which  English  laws 
were  made  operative  in  Ireland  as  in  Eng- 
land. When  Henry  VIII.  succeeded  his 
father,  the  astute  Wolsey  soon  doubted  the 
fidelity  of    the  Geraldiues.     Of   what  use 


2IO        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

were  tlie  Statutes  of  Kilkenny  and  the 
Poynings  Act,  when  the  ruling  Anglo-Irish 
house  acted  as  if  they  did  not  exist !  He 
planned  their  downfall.  The  great  Earl 
of  Kildare  was  summoned  to  London,  and 
six  of  the  doomed  house  were  beheaded  in 
the  Tower.  The  Reformation  had  given 
a  new  aspect  to  the  troubles  in  Ireland. 
Henry's  attack  upon  the  Church  drew 
together  the  native  Irish  and  the  Anglo- 
Irish.  The  struggle  had  been  hitherto  only 
one  over  territory,  between  these  naturally 
hostile  classes  ;  now  they  were  drawn  to- 
gether by  a  common  peril  to  their  Church, 
and  when,  in  1560,  Queen  Elizabeth  had 
passed  the  famous  Act  of  Uniformity,  mak- 
ing the  Protestant  liturgy  compulsory,  the 
exasperation  had  reached  an  acute  stage, 
and  the  sense  of  former  wrongs  was  intensi- 
fied by  this  new  oppression.  Ireland  was 
filled  with  hatred  and  burning  with  desire 
for  vengeance,  and  there  was  one  proud 
family  in  Ulster,  the  O'Neills,  which  was 
preparing  to  defy  all  England.  They  scorn- 
fully threw  away  the  title  "Earl  of  Tyrone," 
bestowed  upon  the  head  of  their  house  by 
Henry  VIII.,   and  declared  that  by  virtue 


A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.         2ii 

of  the  old  Irisli  law  of  Tanistry,  Shane 
O'Neill  was  King  of  Ulster!  It  was  a  test 
case  of  the  validity  of  Irish  or  English  laws. 
"Shane  the  Proud,"  the  King  of  Ulster,  at 
the  invitation  of  Elizabeth,  appeared  with 
his  wild  followers  at  her  Court,  wearing 
their  saffron  shirts  and  battle-axes.  The 
tactful  Queen  patched  up  a  peace  with  her 
rival,  and  then  made  sure  that  his  head 
should  in  a  few  weeks  adorn  the  walls  of 
Dublin  Castle.  His  forfeited  kingdom  was 
thickly  planted  with  English  and  Scotch 
settlers,  who,  when  they  tried  to  settle, 
were  usually  killed  by  the  O'Neills.  The 
only  thing  to  be  done  was  to  exterminate 
this  troublesome  tribe.  This  grew  into  the 
larger  purpose  of  extirpating  the  whole  of 
the  obnoxious  native  population.  The 
Geraldines  were  not  all  dead,  and  this  atro- 
cious plan  led  to  the  famous  Geraldine 
League,  and  that  to  the  Desmond  Rebel- 
lion. The  league  which  was  to  be  the 
avenger  of  centuries  of  wrong,  was  a  Catho- 
lic one.  The  Earl  of  Desmond  had  long 
been  in  communication  with  Rome  and  with 
Spain,  enlisting  their  sympathies  for  their 
co-religionists  in  Ireland.     A  recent  event 


212        A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

helped  to  steel  tbe  hearts  of  the  natives 
against  pity  should  they  succeed.  A  ris- 
ing in  Connaught  had,  at  the  suggestion  of 
Sir  Francis  Crosby,  been  put  down  in  the 
following  way.  The  chiefs  and  their  kins- 
men, four  hundred  in  number,  were  invited 
to  a  banquet  in  the  fort  of  Mullaghmast. 
But  one  man  escaped  alive  from  that  feast 
of  death  !  One  hundred  and  eighty  from 
the  clan  of  O' Moore  alone  were  slaugh- 
tered. It  was  "  Rory  O'Moore"  who  did 
not  attend  the  banquet,  who  kept  alive 
the  memory  of  the  awful  event  for  many  a 
year  by  his  battle-cry,  "  Remember  Mul- 
laghmast!" 'Now  the  long-impending  bat- 
tle was  on,  with  a  Geraldine  for  a  standard- 
bearer.  But  it  was  in  vain.  Another  Earl  of 
Kildare  perished  in  the  Tower,  and  another 
Desmond  head  was  sent  there  as  a  w^arning 
against  disloyalty !  Those  who  escaped 
the  slaughter  fell  by  the  executioner,  and 
the  remnant,  hiding  from  both,  perished  by 
famine.  But  Munster  was  "pacified."  The 
enormous  Desmond  estate,  a  hundred  miles 
in  territory,  was  confiscated  and  planted 
with  settlers  who  would  undertake  the 
doubtful  task  of  settling. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.        213 

The  smothered  fires  next  broke  out  in  Ul- 
ster—the brilliant  Earl  of  Tyrone  headed 
the  rebellion  bearing  his  name,  with  Spain 
as  an  ally.  The  Queen  sent  the  Earl  of  Es- 
sex to  crush  Tyrone.  His  failure  to  crush 
or  even  to  check  the  great  leader,  and  his 
extraordinary  conduct  in  consenting  to  an 
armistice  at  the  moment  when  he  might 
have  compelled  a  surrender,  brought  such  a 
reprimand  from  the  furious  Queen  that  he 
rushed  back  to  England,  and  to  his  death. 
Another  and  more  successful  leader  came — 
Mountjoy.  The  rebellion  was  put  down,  its 
leader  exiled,  and  his  estate,  comprising  six 
entire  counties,  was  confiscated,  planted  with 
Scotch  settlers,  and  Ulster,  too,  was  "pacified." 

The  reign  of  Charles  I.  revived  hope  in  Ire- 
land. He  wanted  money,  and  when  Straf- 
ford came  bearing  profuse  promises  of  relig- 
ious and  civil  liberty,  and  the  righting  of 
wrongs,  a  grateful  Parliament  at  once  voted 
the  £100,000  demanded  for  the  immediate 
use  of  the  Crown,  also  10,000  foot  and 
1,000  horse  for  his  use  in  the  impending 
revolution,  which  was  soon  precipitated  by 
the  attempt  of  Charles  and  Laud  to  force 
the  liturgy  of  the  Established  Church  upon 


214        A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 

tlie  people  in  Scotland.  Between  the  Scotcli 
Presbyterians  and  the  Irish  Catholics  there 
was  the  bitterest  hatred  engendered  during 
the  long  strife  between  the  natives  and  the 
Scotch  settlers.  So  the  King's  cause  was 
Ireland's  cause,  his  enemies  were  her  ene- 
mies, and  his  triumph  would  also  be  hers. 
The  day  of  liberation  seemed  at  hand.  The 
Lords  of  the  Pale  were  in  constant  commu- 
nication with  the  King  and  ready  to  co-oper- 
ate with  him  in  his  designs  upon  Scotland. 
Such  was  the  situation  when  Charles,  under 
the  pressure  of  his  need  of  money,  summoned 
the  Parliament  (1641)  — the  famous  Long 
Parliament— which  was  destined  to  sit  for 
twenty  eventful  years. 

Well  would  it  be  for  Ireland  if  it  could 
blot  out  the  memory  of  that  year  (1641) 
and  the  horrid  event  it  recalls.  The  story 
briefly  told  is  that  a  plot,  having  for  its 
end  a  general  forcible  exodus  of  the  hated 
settlers,  was  discovered  and  defeated,  when 
a  disappointed  and  infuriated  horde  of  armed 
men  spent  their  rage  upon  a  community  of 
Scotch  settlers  in  Armagh  and  Tyrone,  whom 
they  massacred  with  horrible  barbarities. 

There  is  no  reason  to  believe  this  deed  was 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.         215 

premeditated ;  but  it  occurred,  and  was  atro- 
cious in  details  and  appalling  in  magni- 
tude. There  can  be  no  justification  for 
massacre  at  any  time  ;  but  if  there  were  no 
background  of  cruelty  for  this  particular 
one,  it  would  stand  out  blacker  even  than  it 
does  upon  the  pages  of  history.  There  were 
many  massacres  behind  it — massacres  com- 
mitted not  to  avenge  wrongs,  but  to  accom- 
plish them  !  The  massacre  of  Protestants  by 
Irish  Catholics  is  in  itself  no  more  hideous 
than  the  massacre  of  Irish  Catholics  by  Prot- 
estants. And  was  it  strange  that  in  their 
first  chance  at  retaliation,  this  half-civilized 
people  treated  their  oppressors  as  their  op- 
pressors had  many,  many  times  treated 
them?  Could  anything  else  have  been  ex- 
pected ?  especially  when  we  learn  that  the 
Scotch  Presbyterians  in  Tyrone  and  Armagh 
immediately  retaliated  by  murdering  thirty 
Irish  Catholic  families  who  were  in  no  way 
implicated  in  the  horror  ! 

Strafford's  head  had  fallen  in  the  first  days 
of  the  Long  Parliament ;  then  Archbishop 
Laud  met  the  same  fate,  and  finally  the  exe- 
cution of  Charles  I.  at  Whitehall,  in  1649, 
put  an  end  to  the  dreams  of  liberation.     Al- 


2l6        A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

most  the  first  thing  to  occupy  the  attention 
of  Cromwell  was  the  settling  of  accounts 
with  the  Catholic  rebels  in  Ireland,  who  had 
for  years  been  intriguing  with  the  traitor 
King  and  were  even  now  plotting  with  the 
Pope's  nuncio,  Rinucini,  for  the  return  of 
the  exiled  Prince  Charles, 

It  required  six  years  and  600,000  lives 
for  Cromwell  to  inflict  proper  punishment 
upon  Ireland  for  these  offences  and  the 
massacre  of  1641 ;  or  rather,  to  prepare  for 
the  punishment  which  was  now  to  begin, 
and  for  which  we  shall  search  history  in  vain 
for  a  parallel !  The  heroic  Cromwellian 
scheme — which  was  carried  out  to  the  letter 
— was  this :  The  entire  native  population 
were,  before  May  1, 1654,  to  depart  in  a  body 
for  Connaught,  there  to  inhabit  a  small 
reservation  in  a  desolate  tract  between  the 
Shannon  and  the  sea,  of  which  it  was  said 
by  one  of  the  commissioners  engaged  in  this 
business,  "there  was  not  wood  enough  to 
burn,  water  enough  to  drown,  nor  earth 
enough  to  bury  a  man."  They  must  not  go 
within  two  miles  of  the  river,  nor  four  miles 
of  the  sea,  a  cordon  of  soldiers  being  per- 
manently stationed  with  orders  to  shoot  any- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.        217 

one  who  overstepped  such  limits.  Any  Irish 
who  after  the  date  named  were  fouxid  east 
of  the  appointed  line  were  to  suffer  death. 
Resistance  was  hopeless.  We  hear  of  wild 
pleas  for  time,  for  a  brief  delay  to  collect  a 
few  comforts,  and  make  some  provision  for 
food  and  shelter.  But  at  the  beating  of  the 
drum  and  blast  of  the  trumpet,  and  urged  on 
by  bayonets,  the  tide  of  wretched  humanity 
flowed  into  Connaught,  delicately  nurtured 
ladies  and  children,  the  infirm,  the  sick,  the 
high  and  the  low,  peer  and  peasant,  sharing 
alike  the  vast  sentence  of  banishment  and 
starvation.  The  fate  of  others  was  even 
worse,  many  thousands,  ladies,  children, 
people  of  all  ranks,  liad  for  various  reasons 
been  left  behind.  Wholesale  executions  of 
so  great  a  number  of  helpless  beings  were 
impossible,  so  they  were  sold  in  batches  and 
shipped,  most  of  them  to  the  West  Indies 
and  to  the  newly  acquired  island  of  Jamaica, 
to  be  heard  of  never  more  ;  while  of  the 
sturdier  remnant  left,  a  few  fled  into  exile  in 
other  lands,  and  the  rest  to  the  woods,  there 
to  lead  lives  of  wild  brigandage,  hiding  like 
wolves  in  caves  and  clefts  of  rocks,  with  a 
price  upon  their  heads  ! 


2l8        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

Of  the  two  crimes,  the  Cromwellian  settle- 
ment and  the  massacre  of  1641,  it  seems  to 
the  writer  of  this  that  Cromwell's  is  the 
heavier  burden  for  the  conscience  of  a  nation 
to  carry  !  Who  can  wonder  that  the  Irish 
did  not  love  England,  and  that  the  task  of 
governing  a  people  so  estranged  has  been  a 
difficult  one  for  English  statesmanship  ever 
since  ? 

But  the  extinction  of  a  nation  requires 
time,  even  when  accomplished  by  measures 
so  admirable  as  those  employed  in  the  Crom- 
wellian settlement.  In  1660  Charles  II. 
was  on  his  father's  throne,  and  we  hear  of 
hopes  revived,  and  the  expectation  that  the 
awful  suffering  endured  for  the  father  would 
be  rewarded  by  his  son.  The  land  of  the 
exiles  in  Connaught  had  been  bestowed  by 
Cromwell  upon  his  followers.  But  quick 
to  discern  the  turn  in  the  tide,  these  men  had 
helped  to  bring  the  exiled  Prince  Charles 
back  to  his  throne.  Thej^  expected  reward, 
not  punishment !  Like  many  another  suc- 
cessful candidate,  Charles  was  embarrassed 
by  obligations  to  his  friends  ;  besides,  he 
must  not  offend  the  anti-Catholic  sentiment 
in    England,  which  since   the  massacre  of 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.        219 

1641  liad  become  a  passion.  The  matter  of 
the  land  was  finally  adjudicated  ;  such  Irish 
as  could  clear  themselves  of  complicity  with 
the  Papal  Nuncio  and  of  certain  other  seri- 
ous offences,  of  which  almost  all  were  guil- 
ty, might  have  their  possessions  restored  to 
them.  So  a  small  portion  of  the  land  came 
back  to  its  owners,  and  the  Duke  of  Ormond, 
a  stanch  Protestant,  was  created  Viceroy. 

Although  nominally  a  Protestant,  to  the 
pleasure-loving  Charles  the  religion  of  his 
kingdom  was  the  very  smallest  concern.  So, 
more  from  indifference  than  indulgence, 
things  became  easier  for  the  Irish  Catholics, 
and  exiles  began  to  return.  The  Protest- 
ants, both  English  and  Irish,  were  alarmed. 
With  the  massacre  ever  before  them,  they 
believed  the  only  safety  for  Protestants  was 
in  keeping  the  Irish  papists  in  a  condition 
of  absolute  helplessness.  There  was  a 
smouldering  mass  of  apprehension  which 
needed  only  a  spark  to  convert  it  into  a 
blaze.  The  murder  or  Sir  Edward  Bery 
Godfrey,  a  magistrate,  afforded  this  spark. 
Titus  Gates,  the  most  worthless  scoundrel  in 
all  England,  had  recently  made  a  sworn 
statement  before  this  gentleman  to  the  effect 


220        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

that  a  plot  existed  for  the  murder  of  the 
King  in  order  to  place  his  Catholic  brother 
on  the  throne,  to  be  followed  by  a  general 
massacre  of  Protestants,  the  burning  of  Lon- 
don, and  an  invasion  of  Ireland  by  the 
French.  When  Sir  Edward  was  found 
dead  upon  a  hill-side,  men's  minds  leaped  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  carnival  of  blood 
had  begun.  An  insane  panic  set  in.  jN'oth- 
ing  short  of  death  would  satisfy  the  popular 
frenzy.  The  Roman  Catholic  Archbishop, 
Dr.  Plunkett,  a  man  revered  and  beloved  even 
by  Protestants,  was  dragged  to  London,  and 
for  complicity  in  a  French  plot  which  never 
existed,  and  for  aiding  a  French  invasion 
which  had  never  been  contemplated,  was 
hanged,  drawn,  and  quartered.  Innocent  vic- 
tims were  torn  from  their  homes,  fifteen  sent 
to  the  gallows,  and  2,000  languished  in  pris- 
ons, while  a  suite  of  apartments  at  Whitehall 
and  £600  a  year  was  bestowed  upon  Gates, 
who  was  greeted  as  the  saviour  of  his  country! 
In  two  years  more  Gates  was  driven  from 
his  apartment  at  Whitehall  for  calling  the 
heir  to  the  throne  a  traitor,  was  found 
guilty  of  perjury,  and  sentenced  to  be  pil- 
loried,   flogged,    and    imprisoned    for    life. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.        221 

And  so  ended  the  famous  "Popish  Plot"  of 
1678. 

In  1685  Charles  11.  died,  and  was  succeeded 
b}^  his  brother,  James  II.  It  was  precisely 
because  this  ignominious  reign  was  so  disas- 
trous to  Engkmd,  that  it  was  a  period  of 
brief  triumph  for  Ireland.  That  country 
was  the  corner-stone  for  the  political  struct- 
ure which  James  had  long  contemplated. 
It  was  the  stronghold  for  the  Catholicism 
which  he  intended  should  become  the  re- 
ligion of  his  kingdom.  The  Duke  of  Or- 
mond  was  deposed,  and  a  Catholic  filled  the 
office  of  Viceroy  in  Ireland.  At  last  their 
turn  had  come,  and  no  time  was  lost.  An 
Irish  Parliament  was  summoned,  in  which 
there  were  just  six  Protestants.  All  the 
things  of  which  tliey  had  dreamed  for  years 
were  accomplished.  The  Poynings  Act  was 
repealed.  Irish  disabilities  were  removed. 
The  Irish  proprietors  dispossessed  by  the 
Act  of  Settlement  had  their  lands  restored 
to  them.  All  Protestants,  under  terrible 
penalties,  were  ordered  to  give  up  their  arras 
before  a  certain  day.  'Men'  only  recently 
with  a  price  upon  their  heads  were  now  offi- 
cers in  the  King's  service,  and  were  quarter- 


222        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

ing  tlieir  soldiers  upon  the  estates  of  the 
Protestants.  There  was  a  general  exodus  of 
the  Protestants,  some  fleeing  to  England  and 
others  into  the  North,  where  they  finally  en- 
trenched themselves  in  the  cities  of  Ennis- 
killen  and  Londonderry,  winning  for  that 
last-named  city  imperishable  fame  by  their 
heroic  defence  during  a  siege  which  lasted 
one  hundred  and  five  days. 

In  the  meantime  it  had  become  evident  in 
England  that  the  safety  of  the  kingdom 
demanded  the  expulsion  of  James.  His  son- 
in-law,  William  of  Orange,  accepted  an  invi- 
tation to  come  and  share  the  English  throne 
with  his  wife  Mary.  The  fugitive  King  found 
a  refuge  with  his  friend  and  co-conspirator, 
Louis  XIY.,  and  from  France  continued  to 
direct  the  revolutionary  movements  in  Ire- 
land, which  he  intended  to  use  as  a  stepping- 
stone  to  his  kingdom. 

But  for  Catholic  Ireland  all  these  over- 
turnings  meant  only  a  realization  of  the 
long-pray ed-f or  event,  a  separation  from 
England,  a  kingdom  of  their  own,  with  the 
Catholic  James  to  reign  over  them.  When  he 
arrived  with  his  fleet  and  his  French  officers 
and  munitions  of  war,    provided  by  Louis 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.        223 

XIV.,  lie  was  embraced  with  tears  of  rapt- 
urous joy.  Their  "Deliverer"  had  come! 
He  passed  under  triumphal  arches  and  over 
liower-strewn  loads  on  his  way  to  Dublin 
Castle.  But  almost  before  these  flowers  had 
faded,  James  had  met  the  army  of  William, 
the  "Battle  of  the  Boyne"  had  been  fought 
and  lost  (1G90),  and  as  fast  as  the  winds 
would  carry  him  he  had  fled  back  to  France. 

As  the  city  of  Londonderry  had  been  the 
last  refuge  for  the  Protestants  in  the  North, 
it  was  in  the  city  of  Limerick  that  the  Irish 
Catholics  made  their  last  stand  in  the  South. 
And  the  two  names  stand  for  companion  acts 
of  valor  and  heroism.  Saarsfield's  magnifi- 
cent defence  of  the  latter  city  after  the  flight 
of  the  King  and  during  the  terrible  siege  by 
William' s  army  under  Ginkel,  is  the  one  lumi- 
nous spot  in  the  whole  campaign  of  disaster 
and  defeat.  With  the  surrender  of  Limerick 
the  end  had  come.  Their  "Deliverer"  was 
again  a  fugitive  in  France,  and  Ireland  was 
face  to  face  with  an  austere  Protestant  King, 
once  more  to  be  called  to  account  and  to  re- 
ceive punishment  for  her  crimes. 

By  the  famous  Articles  of  Limerick  the 
terms  of  the  surrender,  wrung  by  Saarsfield's 


224        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

valor  from  the  English  commander,  were 
more  favorable  than  could  have  been  expect- 
ed. These  were  a  full  pardon,  and  a  restora- 
tion of  the  rights  enjoyed  by  the  Catholics 
under  Charles  II.  The  army,  with  its  officers, 
was  to  go  into  exile,  and  they  might  choose 
either  the  service  of  William  in  England, 
or  enroll  themselves  in  the  service  of  France, 
Spain,  or  other  European  countries.  The 
latter  was  the  choice  of  all  except  a  very 
few  ;  and  when  the  heart-rending  separation 
was  over,  wives  and  mothers  clinging  in  de- 
spair  to  the  retreating  vessels,  the  last  act  in 
the  Great  Rebellion  of  1690  was  finished. 

Of  course  the  Poynings  law  was  re- 
stored, the  recent  Acts  repealed,  and  a  new 
period  had  commenced  for  Ireland  ;  a  period 
of  quiet,  but  a  quiet  not  unlike  that  of  the 
graveyard,  the  sort  of  quiet  which  makes 
the  wounded  and  exhausted  animal  cease  to 
struggle  with  his  captors.  For  a  whole  cen- 
tury we  are  to  hear  of  no  more  revolts,  ris- 
ings, or  rebellions.  There  was  nothing  left  to 
revolt.  Nothing  left  to  rise  !  The  bone  and 
sinew  of  the  nation  had  gone  to  fight  under 
strange  banners  upon  foreign  battle-fields, 
so  there  was  left  a  nation  of  non-combatants, 


A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.        225 

with  spirit  broken  and  liope  extinguished, 
and  grown  so  pathetically  patient,  that  we 
hear  not  a  single  remonstrance  as  William's 
cold-blooded  decrees,  known  as  the  "Penal 
Code,"  are  placed  in  operation.  These  enact- 
ments were  not  blood-thirsty,  not  sanguinar}^, 
like  those  of  former  reigns,  but  just  a  delib- 
erate process  apparently  designed  to  convert 
the  Irish  into  a  nation  of  outcasts,  by  de- 
stroying every  germ  of  ambition  and  drying 
up  every  spring  which  is  the  source  of  self- 
respecting  manhood. 

Here  are  a  few  of  the  provisions  of  the 
famous,  or  infamous,  code:  No  Papist  could 
acquire  or  dispose  of  property  ;  nor  could 
he  own  a  horse  of  the  value  of  more  than 
£5  ;  and  any  Protestant  offering  that  sum 
for  a  horse  he  must  accept  it.  He  might  not 
practise  any  learned  profession,  nor  teach 
a  school,  nor  send  his  children  to  school 
at  home  or  abroad.  Every  barrister,  clerk, 
and  attorney  must  take  a  solemn  oath  not 
for  any  purpose  to  employ  persons  belong- 
ing to  that  religious  faith.  The  discovery 
of  any  weapon  rendered  its  Catholic  owner 
liable  to  fines,  whipping,  the  pillory,  and 
imprisonment.      He  could   not    inherit,   or 


226        A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

even  receive  property  as  a  gift  from  Pro- 
testants. The  oldest  son  of  a  Catholic, 
by  embracing  the  Protestant  faith,  became 
the  heir-at-law  to  the  whole  estate  of  his 
father,  who  was  rednced  to  the  position 
of  life-tenant ;  and  any  child  by  the  same 
Act  might  be  taken  away  from  its  father  and 
a  portion  of  his  property  assigned  to  it ; 
while  it  was  the  privilege  of  the  wife  who 
apostatized,  to  be  freed  from  her  husband, 
and  to  have  assigned  to  her  a  proportion  of 
his  property. 

The  not  unnatural  result  of  these  last- 
named  enactments  was  that  many  were 
driven  to  feigned  conversions  in  order  to 
keep  their  families  from  starvation.  It  is 
said  that  when  old  Lady  Thomond  was  re- 
proached for  having  bartered  her  soul  by 
professing  the  Protestant  faith,  her  quick 
retort  was,  "Is  it  not  better  that  one  old 
woman  should  burn,  than  that  all  of  the 
Thomonds  should  be  beggars  ? " 

More  details  are  unnecessary  after  saying 
that  by  a  decision  of  Lord  Chancellor  Bowes 
and  Chief-Justice  Robinson  it  was  declared 
that  "the  law  does  not  suppose  any  such 
person  to  exist  as  an  Irish  Roman  Catho- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND         227 

lie,  while  the  English  Bishop  at  Meath 
declared  from  his  pulpit,  "  We  are  not 
bound  to  keep  faith  with  papists."  And  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  people  placed 
under  tliis  monstrous  system  of  wrong  and 
degradation  were  not  a  handful,  whom  the 
welfare  of  a  community  requiied  should  be 
dealt  with  severely,  they  were  a  large  ma- 
jority of  the  population,  a  nation  dwelling 
in  their  own  country,  where,  by  a  Parliament 
supposed  to  be  their  own,  they  were  governed 
by  a  minority  of  aliens. 

In  this  time  of  "  Protestant  ascendancy,"  as 
it  is  called,  there  were,  of  course,  only  Protes- 
tants in  the  Parliament.  They  had  all  the  au- 
thority, they  alone  were  competent  to  vote  ; 
they  were  the  privileged  and  upper  class ; 
an  Irish  papist,  whatever  his  rank,  being  the 
social  inferior  of  his  Protestant  neighbor. 
But  let  it  not  be  supposed  that  the  Irish 
Protestants  were  on  that  account  happy ! 
They  had  been  planted  in  that  land  as  a 
breakwater  against  the  native  Irish  flood, 
but  for  all  that,  England  had  no  idea  of  per- 
mitting them  to  build  up  a  dangerous  pros- 
perity in  Ireland.  The  theory  governing 
English  statesmanship  was  that  that  coun- 


228        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

try  mnst  be  kept  helpless  ;  and  to  that  end 
it  must  be  kept  poor.  During  the  reign  of 
Charles  II.  the  importing  of  Irish  cattle  into 
England  had  been  forbidden.  The  effects  of 
this  prohibition,  so  ruinous  at  first,  were  at 
last  offset  by  the  discovery  that  sheep 
might  be  made  a  greater  source  of  profit  at 
home,  than  when  shipped  to  England.  There 
was  an  increasing  demand  in  Europe  for 
Irish  wool,  and  skilled  manufacturers  of 
woollen  goods  from  abroad  had  come  and 
started  factories,  thus  giving  employment 
to  thousands  of  people. 

When  it  was  realized  in  England  that  a 
profitable  Irish  industry  had  actually  been 
established,  there  was  a  panic.  The  traders 
demanded  legislative  protection  from  Irish 
competition,  which  came  in  this  form.  In 
1699  an  Act  was  passed  prohibiting  the  ex- 
port of  Irish  woollen  goods,  not  alone  to  Eng- 
land, but  to  all  other  countries.  The  facto- 
ries were  closed.  The  manufacturers  left  the 
country,  never  to  return,  and  a  whole  popu- 
lation was  thrown  out  of  employment.  A 
tide  of  emigration  then  commenced  which 
has  never  ceased  ;  such  as  could,  fleeing  from 
the  inevitable  famine  which  in  a  land  always 


A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.        229 

SO  perilously  near  starvation  must  surely 
come. 

There  was  no  market  now  for  the  wool 
which  the  factories  would  have  consumed. 
At  home  it  brought  5d.  a  pound,  but  in 
France  a  half  crown  !  The  long,  deeply 
indented  coast-iine  was  well  adapted  for 
smuggling.  French  vessels  were  hovering 
about,  waiting  an  opportunity  to  get  it ;  the 
people  were  hungry,  and  might  be  hungrier, 
for  there  was  a  famine  in  the  land !  Is  it 
strange  that  they  were  converted  into  law- 
breakers, and  that  wool  was  packed  in  caves 
all  along  the  coast ;  and  that  a  vast  contra- 
band trade  carried  on  by  stealth,  took  the 
place  of  a  legitimate  one  which  was  made 
impossible  ? 

So  it  became  apparent  that  any  efforts  to 
establish  profitable  enterprises  in  Ireland 
would  be  put  down  with  a  strong  hand. 
The  colonists  who  had  been  placed  there  by 
England  felt  bitterly  at  finding  themselves 
thus  involved  in  the  pre-determined  ruin  of 
the  country  with  which  they  had  identified 
their  own  fortunes.  Their  love  of  the  parent- 
country  waned,  some  even  turning  to  and 
adopting  the  persecuted  creed.    The  voice  of 


230        A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

the  native  people,  utterly  stifled,  was  never 
heard  in  Parliament,  and  struggles  which 
occurred  there  were  between  Protestants  and 
Protestants  ;  between  those  who  did,  and 
tliose  who  did  not,  uphold  the  policy  of  the 
Government.  Such  was  the  condition  which 
remained  practically  unchanged  until  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  ;  a  small  dis- 
contented upper  class,  chiefly  aliens  ;  below 
them  the  peasantry,  the  mass  of  the  people, 
whose  benumbed  faculties  and  empty  minds 
had  two  passions  to  stir  their  murky  depths — 
love  for  their  religion,  and  hatred  of  England. 
The  first  voice  raised  in  support  of  the 
constitutional  rights  of  Ireland  was  that  of 
William  Molyneux,  an  Irish  gentleman  and 
scholar,  a  philosopher,  and  the  intimate 
friend  of  Locke.  In  the  latter  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century  he  issued  a  pamphlet 
which  in  the  gentlest  terms  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  laws  and  liberties  of 
England  which  had  been  granted  to  Ireland 
five  hundred  years  before  had  been  invaded, 
in  that  the  rights  of  their  Parliament,  a 
body  which  should  be  sacred  and  inviola- 
ble everywhere,  had  been  abolished.  Noth- 
ing could  have  been  milder  than  this   pre- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY   OP  I  RELAX  D.         231 

sentation  of  a  well-known  fact  ;  but  it 
raised  a  furious  storm.  The  constitutional 
rights  of  Ireland!  Was  the  man  mad? 
The  book  was  denounced  in  Parliament  as 
libellous  and  seditious,  and  was  destroyed 
by  the  common  hangman.  Then  Dean  Swift, 
half-Irisliman  and  more  than  half-English- 
man, an  ardent  High-Churchman  and  a  vehe- 
ment anti-papist,  published  a  satirical  pam- 
phlet called  "A  Modest  Proposal,"  in  which, 
he  suggests  that  the  children  of  the  Irish 
peasants  should  be  reared  for  food,  and  the 
choicest  ones  reserved  for  the  landlords,  who 
having  already  devoured  the  substance  of  the 
fathers,  had  the  best  right  to  feast  upon  their 
children.  This  was  made  the  more  pungent 
because  it  came  from  a  man  who  so  far  from 
being  an  Irish  patriot,  was  an  English  Tory. 
He  cared  little  for  Ireland  or  its  people,  but  he 
hated  tyranny  and  injustice  ;  and  was  stirred 
to  a  fierce  wrath  at  what  he  himself  wit- 
nessed while  Dean  of  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral 
in  Dublin.  Then  it  was  that  with  tremen- 
dous scorn  he  hurled  those  shafts  of  biting 
wit  and  satire,  which  struck  deeper  than  the 
cogent  reasoning  of  the  gentle  and  philo- 
sophic Molyneux. 


232        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

So  the  spell  of  silence  was  broken,  and 
there  began  to  form  a  small  patriotic  party 
in  Parliament,  which  in  1760  was  led  by 
Henry  Flood,  from  Kilkenny.  A  day  was 
dawning  after  the  long  night ;  and  when  in 
1775  Henry  Grattan's  more  powerful  per- 
sonality was  joined  with  Flood's,  then  that 
brief  day  had  reached  its  highest  noon.  Next 
to  that  of  Edmnnd  Burke,  Grattan's  is 
the  greatest  name  on  the  roll  of  native-born 
Irishmen.  Happy  was  that  country  in  hav- 
ing such  an  advocate  and  guide  at  the  criti- 
cal period  when  the  American  colonies  were 
throwing  off  the  joke  of  English  tyranny. 
The  wrongs  suffered  by  the  English  colonies 
in  America  were  trifling  compared  with  those 
endured  by  that  other  English  colony  in 
Ireland.  If  ever  there  was  a  time  to  press 
upon  England  the  necessity  for  loosening 
their  shackles  it  was  now,  when  their  battle 
was  being  fought  across  the  sea.  Every  ar- 
gument in  support  of  the  independence  of 
America  applied  with  equal  force  to  the 
legislative  independence  of  Ireland.  It  was 
Grattan  who  at  this  momentous  time  guided 
the  course  of  events.  A  Protestant,  yet  pos- 
sessing the  entire  confidence  of  the  Catho- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.        233 

lies ;  an  tincompromising  patriot,  3'et  com- 
manding the  respect  and  admiration  of  the 
English  Government ;  inflexibly  opposed  to 
Catholic  exclusion  and  the  ascendancy  of  a 
Protestant  minority,  and  as  inflexibly  op- 
posed to  any  act  of  violence,  he  was  deter- 
mined to  obtain  redress — but  to  obtain  it 
only  by  means  of  the  strictest  constitutional 
methods.  It  was  upon  the  constitutional- 
ity of  their  claims  that  he  threw  all  the 
energy  of  the  movement  growing  out  of  the 
American  war.  His  personal  sympathies 
were  with  the  struggling  colonists ;  yet  he 
voted  for  men  and  money  to  sustain  the 
English  cause.  Equal  rights  bestowed  upon 
Catholics,  who  were  in  large  majority,  would 
transfer  to  them  the  power  ;  yet  he,  a  Prot- 
estant, passionately  advocated  a  removal  of 
the  disabilities  of  four-fifths  of  the  people. 
It  was  in  this  spirit  of  wise  moderation  and 
even-handed  justice  that  Grattan  took  the 
tangled  web  of  the  Irish  cause  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  more  impetuous  Flood ;  his  elo- 
quence and  his  moving  appeals  keeping  two 
objects  steadily  in  view — the  independence 
of  the  Irish  Parliament,  and  the  removal  of 
the  fetters  from  Irish  trade. 


^34        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

Times  had  changed  since  Molyneux's  gentle 
remonstrance,  when  Grattan's  famous  Dec- 
laration of  Rights  was  being  supported  by 
eighteen  counties,  and  still  more  changed 
when  at  last,  in  1782,  an  Irish  House  of  Com- 
mons marched  in  a  body  to  present  to  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  their  address  demanding 
freedom  of  commerce  and  manufacture. 

An  unlooked-for  train  of  events  had  given 
new  weight  to  this  demand.  England  had 
realized  the  necessity  of  protecting  Ireland 
from  a  possible  invasion  growing  out  of  the 
American  war.  So  it  was  determined  that  a 
body  of  militia  should  be  levied,  in  which 
only  Protestants  should  be  enrolled.  The 
attempt  to  raise  the  men  or  the  money  in 
Ireland  was  a  failure,  and  while  defenceless, 
the  country  was  thrown  into  a  panic  by  the 
descent  of  Paul  Jones,  the  American  naval 
hero,  upon  Belfast  and  other  points  on  the 
coast.  The  citizens  of  Belfast  enrolled  them- 
selves for  their  own  defence.  Other  towns 
followed,  and  the  contagion  spread  with  such 
rapidity  that  in  a  short  time  there  was  in  ex- 
istence a  volunteer  force  of  60,000  men. 

Dismayed  at  the  swiftness  of  the  move- 
ment, England  hesitated ;  but  how  could  she 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.        235 

deny  her  colony  the  right  of  self-defence  ? 
They  were  given  the  arms  which  had  been  in- 
tended for  tlie  Protestant  militia.  And  so, 
when  the  House  of  Commons  marched  in  a 
body  to  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  and  presented 
their  address  to  the  Crown,  it  liad  60,000 
armed  men  behind  it  ! 

The  Viceroy  wrote  to  England  that  unless 
the  trade  restrictions  were  removed,  he  would 
not  answer  for  the  consequences.  Lord 
North  had  enough  to  do  with  one  rebellion 
on  his  hands  ;  and,  besides,  George  III.  might 
have  need  of  some  of  those  60,000  soldiers 
before  he  got  through  with  America.  So  the 
Prime  Minister  yielded.  The  first  victory 
was  gained,  and  the  other  quickly  followed, 
American  independence  was  acknowledged  ; 
England  was  in  no  mood  to  defy  another  col- 
ony with  rebellion  in  its  heart.  The  Poynings 
Act  once  more,  and  now  for  all  time,  was  re- 
pealed, and  the  Irish  Parliament  was  a  free  and 
independent  body.  Grateful  for  this  partial 
emancipation,  it  voted  £100,000  to  Grattan. 

But  this  legislative  triumph  did  not  feed 
the  people.  It  was  only  the  seed  out  of 
which  future  prosperity  was  to  grow,  A 
vague  expectation  of  instant  relief  was  bit- 


236        A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

teiiy  disappointed  when  it  was  found  instead 
that  they  were  sinking  deeper  every  day  in 
the  hopeless  abyss  of  poverty  and  degrada- 
tion. There  had  come  into  existence  an  or- 
ganization called  the  "White  Boys,"  with 
no  political  or  religious  purpose,  simply  a 
fraternity  of  wretchedness;  beings  made 
desperate  by  want,  standing  ready  to  com- 
mit any  violence  which  offered  relief.  At 
the  same  time  an  irritation  born  of  misery 
brought  the  Protestants  and  Catholics  in  the 
North  into  tierce  collision  ;  and  the  germ  of 
the  future  Orange  societies  appeared. 

These  small  storm-centres  were  all  soon  to 
be  drawn  into  a  larger  one.  In  1791  the  "  So- 
ciety of  United  Irishmen"  was  formed  at 
Belfast.  It  was  merely  a  patriotic  attempt 
to  sink  minor  differences  in  an  organization 
In  which  all  could  join.  With  the  rising  of 
the  general  tide  of  misery  it  changed  in 
character,  and  fell  into  the  control  of  a  band 
of  restless  spirits  led  by  Wolfe  Tone,  who 
maintained  that  since  constitutional  reforms 
had  failed,  force  must  be  their  resort.  He 
sent  agents  to  Paris,  and  the  new  French 
republic  consented  to  assist  in  an  attempt 
to  establish  a  republic  in  Ireland. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.         237 

When  the  year  1798  closed,  there  had 
been  another  unsuccessful  rebellion.  Fe- 
rocity had  been  met  by  ferocity,  and  Wolfe 
Tone  and  Edward  Fitzgerald  (a  Geraldine) 
had  perished  in  the  ruin  of  the  structure 
they  had  wildly  built.  Flood  and  Grattan 
had  stood  aloof  from  this  miserable  under- 
taking. It  was  now  eighteen  years  since  the 
constitutional  triumph  which  had  proved  so 
barren.  England  was  in  stern  mood.  Pitt 
had  long  believed  that  the  effacement  of  the 
Irish  Parliament  and  a  legislative  union  of 
the  two  countries  was  the  only  solution. 
The  Irish  Protestants  were  shown  the  bene- 
fits of  the  protection  this  would  afford  them, 
while  the  bait  offered  to  the  Catholics  was 
emancipation,  the  removal  of  disabilities 
which  it  was  intimated  would  quickly  fol- 
low. But  no  one  was  won  to  the  cause, 
Grattan,  in  the  most  impassioned  way  pro- 
testing against  it,  and  the  measure  was  de- 
feated. Then  followed  the  darkest  page  in 
the  chapter. 

It  is  well  known  that  large  amounts  of 
money  were  paid  to  the  owners  of  eighty-five 
doubtful  boroughs — boroughs  which  would 
be  effaced  by  the  union — that  peerages  and 


238        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

baronetcies  were  generously  distributed,  and 
that  shortly  after,  the  measure  was  again 
brought  up  and  carried  !  So  by  the  Act 
of  Union,  1800,  the  Irish  Parliament  had 
ceased  to  exist,  and  the  two  countries  were 
politically  merged.  It  is  certain  that  the 
union  was  hateful  to  the  Irish  people,  and 
that  it  was  tainted  by  the  suspicion  of  dis- 
honorable methods,  which  one  hundred 
years  have  failed  to  disprove.  It  may  have 
been  the  best  thing  possible,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, for  Ireland  ;  but  to  the  Irish 
patriots  it  seemed  a  crowning  act  of  oppres- 
sion accomplished  by  treachery. 

You  cannot  combine  oil  and  water  by 
pouring  them  into  one  glass.  The  union 
was  not  a  union.  The  natures  of  the  two 
races  were  utterly  hostile.  Centuries  of 
cruel  wrong  and  outrage  had  accentuated 
every  undesirable  trait  in  the  Irish  people. 
A  nature  simple,  confiding,  spontaneous, 
and  impulsive,  had  become  suspicious,  ex- 
plosive, and  dangerous.  Pugnacity  had 
grown  into  ferocity.  A  joyous,  light-hearted, 
and  engaging  ])eople  had  become  a  sullen 
and  vindictive  one  ;  famine,  misery^  and  ig- 
norance had  put  their  stamp  of  degradation 


A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.         239 

upon  the  peasantry,  the  majority  of  the 
people.  Intermarriage,  so  savagely  inter- 
dicted for  centuries,  was  the  only  thing 
which  could  ever  have  fused  two  such  con- 
trasting races.  Such  a  fusion  miglit  have 
benefited  both,  in  giving  a  wholesome  solid- 
ity to  the  Irish,  while  the  stolid  English 
would  have  been  enriched  by  the  fascinat- 
ing traits  and  the  native  genius  of  their  brill- 
iant neighbors.  But  the  opportunity  had 
been  lost ;  and  enlightened  English  states- 
manship is  still  seeking  for  a  plan  which 
will  convert  an  unnatural  and  artificial  union 
into  a  real  one. 

The  delusive  promises  of  the  relief  which 
was  to  come  with  union  were  not  fulfilled. 
Catholics  remaincjd  under  the  same  mon- 
strous ban  as  before,  and  things  were  prac- 
tically unchanged.  Young  Robert  Ern- 
mett's  abortive  attempt  to  seize  Dublin 
Castle  in  1803  intensified  conditions,  but 
did  not  alter  them.  The  pathetic  story  of 
his  capture  while  seeking  a  parting  interview 
with  Sarah  Curran,  to  whom  he  was  engaged, 
and  his  death  by  hanging  the  following 
morning,  is  one  of  the  smaller  tragedies  in 
the  greater   one  ;   and    the   death  of    Sarah 


240        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

from  a  broken  heart,  soon  after,  is  the  subject 
of  Moore's  well-known  lines. 

The  most  colossal  figure  in  the  story  of 
Ireland  had  now  appeared.  Daniel  O'Con- 
nell,  unlike  the  other  great  leaders,  was  a 
Catholic.  In  the  language  of  another,  "he 
was  the  incarnation  of  the  Irish  nation." 
All  that  they  were,  he  was,  on  a  majestic 
scale.  His  whole  tremendous  weight  was 
thrown  into  the  subject  of  Catholic  emanci- 
pation ;  and,  although  a  giant  in  eloquence 
and  in  power,  it  took  him  just  twenty-nine 
years  to  accomjDlish  it.  In  the  year  1829, 
even  Wellington,  that  incarnation  of  Brit- 
ish conservatism,  bent  his  head  before  the 
storm,  and  there  was  a  full  and  unqualified 
removal  of  Catholic  disabilities.  O'Connell 
was  not  content ;  he  did  not  pause.  The 
tithe-system,  that  most  odious  of  oppressions, 
must  go.  A  starving  nation  compelled  to 
support  in  its  own  land  a  Church  it  consid- 
ered blasphemous  !  A  standing  army  kept 
in  their  land  to  wring  this  tribute  from  them 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet !  Think  of  a 
people  on  the  brink  of  the  greatest  famine 
Europe  has  ever  known,  being  in  arrears  a 
million  and  a  quarter  of  pounds  for  tithes 


A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF   IRELAND.         241 

for  an  Established  Clmrcli  tliey  did  not  want ! 
Is  it  strange  that  Sydney  Smith  said  no 
abuse  as  great  could  be  found  in  Timbuctoo  ? 
Is  it  a  wonder  that  there  was  always  disorder 
and  violence  from  a  chronic  tithe-war  in 
Ireland,  which  it  is  said  has  cost  a  million  of 
lives?  But  in  1839,  in  the  second  year  of 
Queen  Victoria's  reign.  Parliament  gave  re- 
lief, in  the  following  ingenious  way.  The 
burden  was  placed  upon  the  land;  the  land- 
lord must  pay  the  tithe,  not  the  people  ! 
The  exasperation  which  followed  took  a  form 
with  which  we  are  all  more  or  less  familiar. 
With  the  increase  in  rents  which,  of  course, 
ensued,  there  commenced  an  anti-rent  agita- 
tion which  has  never  ceased.  A  repeal  of 
the  Union  was  the  onl}^  remedy,  and  to  this 
O'Connell  devoted  all  his  energies. 

In  1845,  in  one  black  night,  a  blight  fell 
upon  the  potato-crop.  Carlyle  says  "a  fam- 
ine presupposes  much."  What  must  be  the 
economic  condition  of  a  people  when  there  is 
only  one  such  frail  barrier  between  them 
and  starvation  !  The  famine  was  the  hideous 
child  of  centuries.  There  is  no  need  to  dwell 
upon  its  details.  Its  name  expresses  all  the 
horror  of  those  two  years,  when  Europe  and 


242         A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 

America  strove  in  vain  to  relieve  the  famish- 
ing nation,  even  those  who  had  food,  dying, 
it  is  said,  from  the  mental  anguish  produced 
by  witnessing  so  much  suffering  whicli  they 
could  not  assuage.  The  great  O'Connell 
himself  died  of  a  broken  heart  in  beholding 
this  national  tragedy.  Wlien  it  was  over, 
Ireland  had  lost  two  millions  of  its  popula- 
tion. Thousands  had  perished  and  thou- 
sands more  had  emigrated  from  the  doomed 
land  to  America,  there  to  keep  alive,  in  the 
hearts  of  their  children,  the  memory  of  their 
wrongs. 

Out  of  this  wreck  and  ruin  there  arose  the 
party  of  "  Young  Ireland,"  led,  with  more  or 
less  wisdom,  by  Mitchell,  Smith  O'Brien 
(descended  from  Brian  Boru),  Dillon,  and 
Meagher.  Mitchell  was  soon  transported, 
and  later  O'Brien  and  Meagher  were  under 
sentence  of  death,  which  was  afterward  com- 
muted, Meagher  surviving  to  lay  down  his 
life  for  the  North  in  the  civil  war  in  Amer- 
ica. It  is  not  strange  that  these  men  were 
driven  to  futile  insurrections,  maddened  as 
they  were  by  the  sight  of  their  countrymen, 
not  yet  emerged  from  the  horrors  of  famine, 
forced  in  droves  out  of  the  shelter  of  their 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.        243 

miserable  cabins,  for  non-payment  of  rent. 
It  has  been  told  in  foregoing  pages  how  it 
came  about  that  absentee  English  landlords 
owned  a  great  part  of  Ireland.  From  this 
had  arisen  the  custom  of  subletting :  and 
when  it  is  known  that  sometimes  lour  people 
stood  between  the  tenant  and  the  landlord, 
it  will  be  realized  how  difficult  it  was  to 
place  responsibility,  to  do  justice,  or  to  show 
mercy  in  sucli  an  iniquitous  system.  It  was 
the  system,  not  the  landlord,  that  was  vicious. 
Eviction  lias  done  as  much  as  famine  to  de- 
populate Ireland.  It  has  driven  millions  of 
Irishmen  into  America  ;  and  the  cruelty  and 
even  ferocity  with  which  it  has  been  carried 
out  cannot  be  overstated.  Whatever  the 
weather,  for  the  sick,  or  even  for  the  dying, 
there  was  no  pity.  Out  they  must  go  ;  and 
to  make  sure  that  they  would  not  return, 
the  cabin  was  unroofed !  And  then,  if  the 
wretched  being  died  under  the  stars  by  the 
road-side,  he  might,  in  the  words  of  Mitchell, 
"lift  his  dying  eyes  and  thank  God  that  he 
perished  under  the  best  constitution  in  the 
world!" 

At  the  close  of  the  American  civil  war  it 
was  believed  by  Irishmen  that  the  strained 


244        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

relations  between  England  and  America 
would  lead  to  open  conflict.  An  organiza- 
tion named  Fenians  (after  the  ancient  Feni) 
formed  a  plan  for  a  rising  in  Ireland,  which 
was  to  be  simultaneous  with  a  raid  into 
Canada  by  way  of  America. 

The  United  States  Government  took  vigor- 
ous action  in  the  matter  of  the  Canadian 
raid,  and  the  failure  of  this  and  of  other  vio- 
lent attempts  at  home  put  an  end  to  the  least 
creditable  of  all  such  organizations. 

It  was  in  1869  that  Mr.  Gladstone  realized 
his  long-cherished  plan  for  the  disestablish- 
ment of  the  Church  in  Ireland.  The  genera- 
tions which  had  hoped  and  striven  for  this 
had  passed  away,  and  in  the  Ireland  which 
remained,  there  was  scarcely  spirit  enough 
left  to  rejoice  over  anything.  The  words 
Home  Rule  were  the  only  ones  with  power 
to  arouse  hope.  With  the  Liberal  Party  on 
their  side,  this  seemed  possible  of  attain- 
ment. In  1875  Charles  Parnell  entered  the 
House  of  Commons  and  became  the  leader  of 
a  Home  Rule  Party.  But  the  question  of 
evictions,  of  which  there  had  been  10,000  in 
four  years,  became  so  pressing,  that  he 
organized  a  IS'ational  Land  League,  which 


A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  IRELAND.        245 

had  for  its  object  the  relief  of  present  dis- 
tress, and  the  substitution  of  peasant-pro- 
prietorsliijo  for  the  existing  landlord  sys- 
tem; an  agrarian  scheme,  or  dream,  to 
which  Mr.  Paniell  devoted  the  rest  of  his 
life.  Mr.  ParnelPs  weapons  were  parlia- 
mentary. He  introduced  an  obstructive 
method  in  legislation  which  caused  extreme 
irritation  and  finally  antagonism  between 
the  Liberal  Party  and  his  own.  This,  to- 
gether with  the  unfounded  suspicion  of 
complicity  in  the  murder  of  Lord  Freder- 
ick Cavendish,  in  1882,  militated  against 
Mr.  Gladstone's  Home  Rule  Act,  which  was 
defeated  in  1886 ;  and  the  cause  awaited  an- 
other champion. 

But  while  the  door  bearing  the  alluring 
words  "  Home  Kule  "  still  remains  rigidly 
closed,  another  has  unexpectedly  opened. 
One  of  the  first  subjects  to  engage  the  at- 
tention of  King  Edward  VII.  after  his  ac- 
cession was  the  settlement  of  the  Irish 
agrarian  question  which  that  practical  Mon- 
arch recognized  as  the  most  essential  to  the 
l^acification  of  his  Irish  subjects.    This  has 


246        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

resulted  in  an  ingeniously  devised  system  of 
peasant-proprietorship,  which  is  made  pos- 
sible by  Government  aid,  in  money  and 
credit.  The  New  Land  Act,  embodying 
this  result,  went  into  effect  November  1, 
1903,  whereby  tenants,  sub-tenants,  or  peo- 
ple who  are  not  tenants  may  purchase  land 
in  small  lots  and  hold  it  as  their  oivn,  by 
the  payment  of  a  small  annual  rental  which 
applies  to  the  purchase.  It  is  impossible  to 
give  here  the  complicated  details  which  in- 
sure this  result  with  benefit  to  landlord, 
tenant,  and  also  to  the  Government  itself. 
But  a  remedy  seems  to  have  been  found 
which  accomplishes  all  this ;  and  the  condi- 
tion, more  demoralizing  to  Irish  life  and 
character  than  any  other,  has  been  removed. 
With  the  sense  of  peace  and  permanence, 
and  even  of  dignity,  which  comes  from  pro- 
prietorship it  is  hoped  a  new  day  is  dawn- 
ing for  the  peasantry  of  that  unhappy 
country. 

It  has  been  Ireland's  misfortune  to  be 
geographically  allied  to  one  of  the  greatest 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND.         247 

EuroiJean  Powers.  She  has  been  fighting 
for  centuries  against  the  "  despotism  of 
fact."  She  has  never  once  loosened  the 
grasp  fastened  upon  her  in  1171 ;  never  had 
control  of  her  capital  city,  which,  built  by 
the  Northmen,  has  been  the  home  of  her 
political  masters  ever  since.  Of  course 
everyone  knows  that  when  the  English 
Government  solemnly  doubts  the  capacity 
of  the  Irish  people  for  Home  Rule,  its  solici- 
tude is  for  England,  not  Ireland. 

Francis  Meagher,  when  on  trial  for  his 
life,  said :  "  If  I  have  committed  a  crime,  it 
is  because  I  have  read  the  history  of  Ire- 
land !  "  One  need  not  be  an  Irish  patriot  to 
be  in  rebellion  against  the  English  rule  in 
that  land ;  and  no  Protestant  can  read  with- 
out shame  and  indignation  the  crimes  which 
have  been  committed  in  the  name  of  his 
Church. 

But,  in  view  of  the  small  results  of  more 
than  eight  centuries  of  resistance,  would  it 
not  be  wise  for  the  Irish  peo]ile  to  abandon 
the  fight  against  the  "  despotism  of  fact," 


248        A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 

to  give  up  the  attitude  of  a  conquered  peo- 
ple with  rebellion  in  their  hearts?  Is  not 
this  the  right  moment,  when  England  is 
manifesting  a  desire  to  be  more  just,  for 
Ireland,  deeply  injured  although  she  is,  to 
accept  the  olive  branch,  and  call  a  truce  ? 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 


The  northern  extremity  of  the  British 
Isles,  bristling  with  mountains  and  with  its 
ragged  coast-line  deeply  fringed  by  the  sea, 
told  in  advance  the  cliaracter  of  its  people. 
Scotland  is  the  child  of  the  mountains ;  and 
in  spite  of  all  that  has  been  done  to  change 
their  native  character,  the  word  Caledonia 
still  invokes  the  same  picturesque,  liberty- 
loving  race  which  in  the  first  century,  under 
the  name  of  Picts,  defied  Agricola  and  his 
Roman  legions,  and  the  wall  they  had 
builded.  If  they  have  borrowed  their  name 
from  Ireland,  if  they  have  used  the  speech 
and  consented  to  wear  the  political  3'Oke  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon,  they  have  accepted  these 
tilings  only  as  convenient  garments  for  a 
proud  Scottish  nationality,  which  has  defied 
all  efforts  to  change  its  essential  character. 

About  four  centuries  after  the  Roman  in- 
vasion, a  colon}^  of  Scots  (Irish)  migrated  to 


250      A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  SCOTLAND. 

tlie  opposite  coast,  under  Fergus,  and  set  up 
their  little  kingdom  in  Argyleshire,  taking 
with  them,  perhaps,  the  sacred  "Stone  of 
Destiny"  upon  which  a  long  line  of  Irish 
kings  had  been  crowned,  and  which  tradition 
asserts  was  "Jacob's  Pillow."  The  Picts 
and  the  Irish  Scots  were  both  of  the  Celtic 
race,  and  if  they  fought,  it  was  as  brothers 
do,  ready  in  an  instant  to  embrace  and  make 
common  cause,  which  they  first  did  against 
the  Romans.  A  common  enemy  is  the  sur- 
est healer  of  domestic  feuds,  and  there  were 
many  of  these  to  bring  together  the  two  Cel- 
tic branches  dwelling  on  the  same  soil  after 
the  fifth  century.  Then  came  the  more 
peaceful  fusion  through  a  common  religious 
faith.  St.  Columba  had  been  preceded  by 
St.  Nimian.  But  it  was  the  Irish  saint  from 
Donegal  who  did  for  the  Picts  what  St. 
Patrick  had  done  for  the  Irish  Scots.  In 
the  history  of  the  Church  there  has  never 
been  an  awakening  of  purer  spiritual  ardor 
than  that  which  irradiated  from  Columba' s 
monastery  at  lona. 

Why  the  Irish  Scots,  occupying  only  a 
small  bit  of  territory,  should  have  fastened 
their  name  upon  the  land  of  their  adoption 


A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  SCOTLAND.      251 

is  not  known.  Perliaps  it  was  the  magic  of 
tliat  Stone  of  Destiny !  The  Picts  liad  the 
political  centre  of  tlieir  kingdom  at  Scone, 
on  the  river  Tay.  It  was  in  84^  that  Kenneth 
M'Alpin  made  war  upon  the  Irish  Scots,  tlie 
little  kingdom  in  Argyle  was  merged  with 
that  of  the  Picts,  and  by  the  eleventh  century 
the  latter  name  had  disappeared  and  the 
name  Scotland  was  applied  to  the  whole 
country.  In  the  two  centuries  following 
this  union  there  were  four  reigns,  in  which 
wars  between  hostile  clans  were  diversified 
by  wars  with  invading  Danes,  and  with  the 
Angles  near  the  border,  with  w^hom  there 
was  a  chronic  struggle,  caused  by  aggressions 
upon  both  sides.  Malcolm  11.  succeeded  in 
defeating  the  Angles  on  the  Tweed,  seized 
Lothian,  incorporated  this  bit  of  old  England 
with  his  own  kingdom,  then  died,  in  1034, 
Icavirg  his  tlirone  to  his  grandson,  Duncan. 
There  was  the  same  play  of  fierce  ambi- 
tions upon  this  small  stage  as  on  larger  ones. 
Scottish  thanes  strove  to  undermine  and 
Bupplant  other  thanes,  just  as  Norman 
barons  and  Scotcl>-English  earls  would  do 
later,  and  as  in  other  lands  and  at  all  times, 
the    dream   of    aspiring,   intriguing    nobles 


252      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

was  by  some  liappy  chance  to  snatch  the 
crown  and  reign  at  Scone. 

Macbeth,  the  Thane  of  Glamis,  was  by 
birth  nearest  to  the  supreme  prize.  His 
wife,  whose  "undaunted  mettle"  we  all 
know,  had  rojal  blood  in  her  veins.  "We 
also  know  how  the  poison  of  ambition 
worked  in  the  once  guiltless  soul  of  the 
thane  after  the  projDhecy  of  the  "Weird 
Sisters"  had  commenced  its  fulfilment.  The 
story  was  quaintly  told  a  century  before 
Shakespeare  lived,  in  a  history  of  Scotland 
by  Boece.  The  book  was  written  in  Latin, 
and  in  the  sixteenth  century  was  translated 
into  the  Scottish  vernacular.  It  tells  of  the 
meeting  between  Macbeth,  Banquo,  and  the 
"Weird  Sisters."  "  The  first  of  thaim  said, 
'  Hale,  Thane  of  Glammis ! '  the  secound 
said,  '  Hale,  Thane  of  Cawder ! '  and  the 
thrid  said,  '  Hale,  King  of  Scotland  ! '  Then 
Banquo  said,  '  How  is  it  ye  gaif  to  my  com- 
panyeon  not  onlie  landis  and  gret  rentis, 
bot  Kingdomes,  and  gevis  me  nocht  ? '  To 
which  they  reply,  '  Tlioucht  he  happin  to  be 
ane  King,  nane  of  his  blude  sail  ef  tir  him 
succeid.  Be  contrar,  thow  sail  nevir  be  King, 
bot  of  the  sal  ctim  mony  Kingis,  quhilkis 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      253 

sail  rejose  the  Crouii  of  Scotland ! '  Tlien 
they  evanist  out  of  sicht."  This  seems  to 
have  amused  the  two  friends  and  "Fur  sam 
time  Banquho  wald  call  Makbeth  '  King  of 
Scottis'  for  derisioun ;  and  he  on  the  samin 
maner  wald  call  Banquho  'the  fader  of 
mony  Kingis  ! '  Yit,  not  long  ef  ter,  it  hapnit 
that  the  Thane  of  Cawder  wasdisinheristand 
forfaltit  of  his  landis  for  certane  crimes ;  and 
his  landis  wer  gevin  be  King  Duncane  to 
Makbeth.  It  hapnit  in  the  nixt  nicht  that 
Banquho  and  Makbeth  were  sportand  togid- 
dir  at  thair  supper,"  and  Banquo  reminded 
his  friend  that  there  remained  only  the  Crown 
to  complete  the  prophecy.  Whereupon,  "he 
began  to  covat  the  crown."  And  then  Dun- 
can named  his  young  son  Malcolm  as  his 
heir,  "Quhilk  wes  gret  displeseir  to  Mak- 
beth ;  for  it  maid  plane  derogatioun  to  the 
tlirid  weird,"  promising  him  the  Crown. 
"  Nochtheless,  he  tliocht,  gif  Duncane  war 
slane,  he  had  maist  richt  to  the  Croun,  be  the 
old  lawis  of  King  Fergus  (law  of  tanistry), 
becaus  he  wer  nerest  of  blude  thairto," 
the  text  of  the  old  law  being,  "  Quliea 
young  children  wer  unabil  to  govern,  the 
nerrest  of  thair  blude  sail  regne."     Then, 


■254      A    SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

when  liis  wife  "  calland  liim  oft  times,  febil 
cowart,  sen  he  durst  not  assail  ye  thing 
with  manheid  and  enrage,  quhilk  is  offert  to 
him  be  benivolence  of  fortoun,"  then,  so 
tempted  and  so  goaded,  "  Makbeth  fand 
sufficient  opportunite,  and  slew  King  Dun- 
cane,  the  YII  yeir  of  his  regne,  and  his  body 
was  buryit  in  Elgin,  and  efter  tane  up 
and  broclit  to  Colmekill,  quhare  it  remanis 
yit,  amang  the  uthir  Kingis:  fra  our  Re- 
demption. MXLVI  yeris." 

The  story  told  in  these  quaint  words  was, 
without  any  doubt,  read  by  Shakespeare,  and 
in  the  alembic  of  his  imagination  grew  into 
the  immortal  play.  Touched  by  his  genius, 
the  names  Dunsinnane  and  Birnam,  lying 
close  to  Scone,  are  luminous  points  on  the 
map,  upon  which  the  eye  loves  to  linger. 
The  incidents  may  not  be  authentic.  We 
are  told  they  are  not.  But  Macbeth  certainly 
slew  Duncan  and  was  King  of  Scotland,  and 
finally  met  his  Nemesis  at  Dunsinnane,  near 
Birnam  Wood,  where  Malcolm  III.,  called 
Canmore,  avenged  his  father's  death,  slew 
the  usurper,  and  was  crowned  king  at  Scone, 
1054. 

The  historic  point  selected  by  Shakespeare 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      255 

has  an  important  significance  of  a  different 
sort.  It  was  the  dividing  line  between  the 
old  and  the  new.  Macbeth' s  reign  marks 
the  close  of  the  Celtic  period.  With  the 
advent  of  Malcolm  III.,  there  commenced 
that  infusion  of  Teutonic  political  ideals 
which  was  destined  at  last  to  merge  the  An- 
glo-Saxon and  the  Scottish  Celt  into  one 
political  organism.  Malcolm's  mother  was 
the  sister  of  the  Earl  of  Northumberland. 
So  the  son  of  Duncan  was  half-English  ;  and 
he  became  more  than  half-English  when, 
somewhat  later,  he  married  Margaret,  sister  of 
his  friend  and  guest,  "Edgar  the  Atheling," 
last  claimant  of  the  Saxon  throne,  who  had 
taken  refuge  with  him  while  vainly  plotting 
against  William  the  Conqueror.  This  was  in 
1067,  the  year  after  the  conquest.  So  at  this 
critical  period  in  English  history,  the  door 
leading  to  the  South,  which  had  until  now 
been  kept  bolted  and  barred,  except  for  hos- 
tile bands,  was  left  ajar.  A  host  of  Saxon  no- 
bles, following  their  leader,  Edgar,  streamed 
into  Scotland,  and  soon  formed  the  most 
powerful  element  about  the  throne,  bringing 
new  speech,  new  ways,  new  customs ;  in  fact, 
doing  at  Scone  precisely  what  the  Norman 


256      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

nobles  were  at  the  sjime  time  doing  at  Lon- 
don, substituting  a  more  advanced  civiliza- 
tion for  an  existing  one.  The  manners  of  the 
Norman  nobles  were  not  more  odious  to  the 
Saxon  nobility  in  England,  than  were  those 
of  the  Saxons  to  the  proud  thanes  and  people 
in  Scotland.  Then  Malcolm  began  to  bestow 
large  grants  of  land  upon  his  foreign  favor- 
ites, accompanied  by  an  almost  unlimited 
authority  over  their  vassals,  and  feudalism 
was  introduced  into  the  free  land.  With 
these  changes  there  gradually  formed  a  dia- 
lect, a  mingling  of  the  two  forms  of  speech, 
which  became  the  language  of  the  Court,  and 
of  the  powerful  dwellers  in  the  Lowlands. 
And  so,  in  succeeding  reigns,  the  process  of 
blending  went  on,  the  wave  of  a  changed 
civilization  driving  before  it  the  Celtic 
speech,  manners,  and  habits,  into  their  im- 
pregnable fastnesses  in  the  Highlands,  there 
to  preserve  the  national  type  in  proud  per- 
sistence. Such  was  the  condition  for  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years,  the  Crown  in  open 
alliance  with  aliens,  subverting  established 
usages  and  fastening  an  exotic  feudalism  up- 
on the  South  ;  while  an  angry  and  defiant  Cel- 
tic people  remained  unsubdued  in  the  North. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      257 

It  was  a  favorite  amusement  with  the 
Scottish  kings  to  dart  across  the  border  into 
Northumbria,  the  disputed  district,  not  yet 
incorporated  with  England,  there  to  waste 
and  burn  as  much  as  they  could,  and  then 
back  again.  In  one  of  these  forays  in  1174, 
the  King,  "  William  the  Lion,"  was  captured 
by  a  party  of  English  barons.  Henry  II.  of 
England  had  just  returned  from  Ireland, 
where  he  had  established  his  feudal  sover- 
eignty by  conquest.  Now  he  saw  a  chance 
Oi  accomplishing  the  same  thing  by  peaceful 
methods  in  Scotland.  He  named  as  a  price 
of  ransom  for  the  captive  King  an  acknowl- 
edgment of  his  feudal  lordship.  The  terms 
were  accepted,  and  the  five  castles  which  they 
included  were  surrendered.  Fifteen  years 
later,  his  son  Richard  I.,  the  romantic  crusad- 
er, gave  back  to  Scotland  her  castles  and  her 
independence.  But  what  had  been  done 
once,  would  be  tried  again.  So  while  it  was 
the  stead}''  policy  of  the  English  sovereigns 
to  reduce  Scotland  to  a  state  of  vassalage  to 
England,  it  was  the  no  less  steady  aim  of 
the  Scottish  kings  to  extend  their  own  feudal 
authority  to  the  Highlands  and  the  islands 
in  the  north  and  west  of  their  own  realm, 


258      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

•where  an  independent  people  had  never  yet 
been  brought  under  its  subjection. 

In  the  year  1286  Alexander  III.  died,  and 
only  an  infant  granddaughter  survived  to 
wear  the  crown.  The  daughter  of  the  de- 
ceased King  had  married  the  King  of  Nor- 
way, and  dying  soon  after,  had  left  an  infant 
daughter.  It  was  about  this  babe  that  the 
diplomatic  threads  immediately  began  to 
entwine.  A  regency  of  six  nobles  was  ap- 
pointed to  rule  the  kingdom.  Then  Edward 
I.  of  England  proposed  a  marriage  between 
his  own  infant  son  and  the  little  maid.  The 
proposition  was  accepted.  A  ship  was  sent 
to  Norway  to  bring  the  baby  Queen  to  Scot- 
land, bearing  jewels  and  gifts  from  Edward  ; 
but  just  before  she  reached  the  Orkneys  the 
"Maid  of  Norway"  died.  Edward's  plans 
were  frustrated,  and  the  empty  throne  of 
Scotland  had  many  claimants,  but  none  with 
paramount  right  to  the  succession.  In  the 
wrangle  which  ensued,  when  eight  ambitious 
nobles  were  trying  to  snatch  the  prize,  Ed- 
ward I.  intervened  to  settle  the  dispute, 
which  had  at  last  narrowed  down  to  one  be- 
tween two  competitors,  Bruce  and  Baliol, 
both  lineally  descended  from  King  David  I. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      259 

But  the  important  fact  in  tliis  mediatorial 
act  of  Edward  was,  that  it  was  done  by  virtue 
of  his  authority  as  Over-Lord  of  Scotland. 
We  are  left  to  imagine  how  and  why  such  a 
monstrous  and  baseless  pretension  was  ac- 
knowledged witliout  a  single  protest.  But 
when  we  reflect  that  the  eager  claimants  and 
their  upholders  represented,  not  the  people 
of  Scotland  but  an  aristocratic  ruling  ele- 
ment, more  than  half-English  already,  it  is 
not  so  strange  that  they  w^ere  willing  to  pay 
this  price  for  the  sake  of  restoring  peace  and 
security  at  a  time  when  everything  was  im- 
perilled by  an  empty  throne.  There  was  no 
organic  unity  in  Scotland  ;  only  a  superflcial 
unity,  created  by  the  name  of  king,  which  fell 
into  chaos  when  that  name  was  withdrawn. 
It  was  imperative  that  someone  should  be 
crowned  at  Scone  at  once.  And  so,  when 
Edward,  by  virtue  of  his  authority  as  Over- 
Lord,  gave  judgment  in  favor  of  John  Baliol, 
without  a  single  remonstrance  Baliol  was 
crowned  John  I.  at  Scone,  rendered  hom- 
age to  his  feudal  lord,  and  Scotland  was  a 
vassal  kingdom  (1292).  This  whole  proceed- 
ing, thus  disposing  of  the  state,  had  in  no 
way  recognized  the  existence  of  a  nation. 


26o      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

It  was  an  arrangement  between  tlie  Scottish 
nobles  and  clergy,  and  the  King  of  England. 
When  the  heralds  had,  with  great  ceremony, 
proclaimed  King  Edward  Lord  Paramount 
of  Scotland,  the  matter  was  supposed  to  be 
ended,  and  it  was  forgotten  that  there  was 
beyond  the  Grampians  a  proud  people, 
whose  will  would  have  to  be  broken  before 
their  country  would  become  the  Jief  of  an 
English  king.  But  Baliol  soon  discovered 
how  empty  was  the  honor  he  had  purchased. 
There  was  now  a  right  of  appeal  from  the 
Scottish  Parliament  and  courts  to  those  of 
Edward  I.  Such  appeals  were  made,  and 
King  John  I.  was  with  scant  ceremony  sum- 
moned to  London  to  plead  his  own  cause 
before  a  Parliament  which  humiliated  and 
insulted  him. 

In  1295,  so  intolerable  had  his  position 
become,  that  Baliol  threw  off  the  yoke  of  vas- 
salage, secured  an  alliance  with  France,  and 
gathered  such  of  his  nobles  as  he  could  about 
him,  prepared  to  resist  the  authority  of  Ed- 
ward ;  whereupon  that  enraged  King  marched 
into  the  rebellious  land,  swept  victoriously 
from  one  city  to  another,  gathering  up  towns 
and  castles  by  the  way ;  then  took  the  sa- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      261 

cred  Stone  of  Destiny  from  Scone  as  a 
memorial  of  his  conquest,  and  left  the  peni- 
tent vassal  King  helpless  and  forlorn  in  his 
humiliated  kingdom.  It  was  then  that  the 
famous  stone  was  built  into  the  coronation- 
chair,  where  it  still  remains. 

We  have  now  come  to  a  name  which,  as 
Wordsworth  says,  is  "  to  be  found  like  a  wild 
flower,  all  over  his  dear  country."  Every- 
where there  are  places  sacred  to  his  memory. 
The  story  of  Wallace  is  a  brief  one — an 
impassioned  resolve  to  free  his  enslaved 
country,  one  supreme  triumph,  then  defeat, 
an  ignominious  and  cruel  death  in  London, 
to  be  followed  by  imperishable  renown  for 
himself,  and  for  Scotland— freedom.  Sir 
William  Wallace  belonged  to  the  lower  class 
of  Scotch  nobility.  He  had  never  sworn  al- 
legiance to  Edward  I.  His  career  of  out- 
lawry commenced  by  his  making  small 
attacks  upon  small  English  posts.  As  his 
successes  increased,  so  did  his  followers, 
until  so  formidable  had  the  movement  be- 
come, that  Edward  learned  there  was  a 
rising  in  his  vassal  kingdom.  But  it  could 
not  be  much,  he  thought,  as  he  had  all  the 
nobles,  and  how  could  there  be  a  rising  with- 


262      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

out  nobles  ?  So  he  despatched  a  small  force 
to  straighten  things  out.  But  a  few  weeks 
later,  Edward  himself  was  in  Scotland  with 
an  army.  Wallace  was  besieging  the  Castle 
of  Dundee,  when  he  heard  that  the  King  was 
marching  on  Stirling,  With  the  quick  in- 
stinct of  the  true  military  leader,  he  saw  his 
opportunity.  He  reached  the  rising  ground 
commanding  the  bridge  of  Stirling,  while  the 
English  army  of  50,000  were  still  on  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  river.  When  the  English 
general,  seeing  his  disadvantage,  offered  to 
make  terms,  Wallace  replied  that  his  terms 
were  "the  freedom  of  Scotland."  The  at- 
tack made  as  they  were  crossing  the  bridge 
resulted  in  the  panic  of  the  English  and  a 
rout  in  which  the  greater  part  of  the  flee- 
ing army  was  slain  and  drowned  (1297). 
Baliol  had  been  swept  from  the  scene  and 
was  in  the  Tower  of  London,  so  Wallace  was 
supreme.  But  in  less  than  a  year  Edward 
had  returned  with  an  army  overwhelming 
in  numbers,  and  Wallace  met  a  crushing  de- 
feat at  Falkirk.  We  next  hear  of  him  on 
the  Continent,  still  planning  for  Scotland's 
liberation,  then  hunted  and  finally  caught 
in  Glasgow,  dragged  to  London  in  chains. 


A    SHORT  HISTORY   OF  SCOTLAND.       263 

there  to  be  tried  and  condemned  for  treason. 
Had  they  condemned  him  as  a  rebel  and  an 
outlaw  tliere  would  have  been  jnstice,for  these 
he  was.  But  a  traitor  he  never  was,  for  he  had 
never  sworn  allegiance  to  Edward.  He  had 
fought  against  the  invaders  of  his  country, 
and  for  this  he  died  a  felon's  death,  with  all 
the  added  cruelties  of  Norman  law.  He  was 
first  tortured,  then  executed  in  a  way  to 
strike  terror  to  the  souls  of  similar  offenders 
(1304).  Buthis  work  w^as  accomplished.  He 
had  lighted  the  fires  of  patriotism  in  Scot- 
land. The  power  of  his  name  to  stir  the 
hearts  of  his  people  like  a  trumpet-blast,  is 
best  described  by  the  words  of  Robert  Burns : 
*'The  story  of  Wallace  poured  a  Scottish 
prejudice  into  my  veins,  which  will  boil 
along  there  till  the  flood-gates  of  life  shut, 
in  eternal  rest."  To  be  praised  by  the  bards 
was  the  supreme  reward  of  Celtic  heroes. 
What  did  death  matter,  in  form  however 
terrible,  to  one  who  was  to  be  so  remembered 
nearly  five  centuries  later  by  Scotland's 
greatest  bard  ? 

We  are  accustomed  to  regard  the  name  of 
Bruce  as  the  intensest  expression  of  a  Scot- 
tish nationality,  and  of  its  aspirations  tow- 


«64      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

ard  liberty.  But  it  had  no  such  meaning 
at  this  time.  The  ancestor  of  the  family 
was  Robert  de  Bruis,  a  Norman  knight  who 
came  over  with  the  Conqueror.  His  son, 
Robert,  was  one  of  those  hated  foreign  ad- 
venturers at  the  Court  of  David  I.,  and 
received  from  that  King  a  large  grant  and 
the  Lordship  of  Annandale.  The  grandson 
of  this  first  Earl  of  Annandale  married  Isa- 
bel, the  granddaughter  of  David  I.,  and  so  it 
was  that  the  house  of  Bruce  came  into  the 
line  of  royal  succession.  It  was  Robert,  the 
son  of  Isabel,  who  competed  with  Baliol  for 
the  throne  of  Scotland. 

Robert  Bruce,  who  stands  forth  as  the 
greatest  character  in  Scottish  history,  was 
twelve  years  old  when  his  grandfather  was 
defeated  by  Baliol  in  this  competition.  No 
family  in  the  vassal  kingdom  was  more 
trusted  by  England's  King,  nor  more  friend- 
ly to  his  pretensions.  The  young  Robert's 
father  had  accompanied  King  Edward  to 
Palestine  in  his  own  youth,  and  he  himself 
was  being  trained  at  the  English  Court.  His 
English  mother  had  large  estates  in  England, 
and,  in  fact  there  was  everything  to  bind 
him  to  the  King's  cause.    He  and  his  father, 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OP  SCOTLAND.      265 

and  the  High  Steward  of  Scotland,  together 
with  other  Scottish-Norman  nobles,  had  been 
with  the  King  in  his  triumphal  march  through 
Scotland  when  Baliol  was  dethroned,  and  at 
the  time  of  the  rising  under  Wallace,  Rob- 
ert Bruce  had  not  one  thing  in  common  with 
him  or  his  cause.  And  as  for  the  people 
in  the  Highlands,  if  he  ever  thought  of  them 
at  all,  it  was  as  troublesome  malcontents, 
who  needed  to  be  ruled  with  a  strong  hand. 
Wallace  was  in  rebellion  against  an  estab- 
lished authority,  to  which  all  his  own  ante- 
cedents reconciled  him.  How  the  change 
was  wrought,  how  his  bold  and  ardent  spirit 
came  to  its  final  resolve,  we  can  only  sur- 
mise. Was  it  through  a  complicated  strug- 
gle of  forces,  in  which  ambition  played  the 
greatest  part?  Or  did  the  splendid  heroism 
of  Wallace,  and  the  spirit  it  evoked  in  the 
people,  awaken  a  slumbering  patriotism  in 
his  own  romantic  soul  ?  Or  was  it  the  pre- 
science of  a  leader  and  statesman,  who  saw 
in  this  newly  developed  popular  force  an 
opportunity  for  a  double  triumph,  the  eman- 
cipation of  Scotland,  and  the  realization  of 
his  own  kingship  ? 
Whatever  the  process,  a  change  was  going 


266      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

on  in  his  soul.  He  wavered,  sometimes  in- 
clining to  the  party  of  Wallace,  and  some- 
times to  that  of  the  King,  until  the  year 
1304.  In  that  year,  the  very  one  in  which 
"Wallace  died,  he  made  a  secret  compact 
with  the  Bishop  of  Lamberton,  pledging  mut- 
ual help  against  any  opponents.  While  at 
the  Court  of  Edward,  shortl}^  after  this,  he 
discovered  that  the  King  had  learned  of  this 
compromising  paper.  There  was  nothing 
left  but  flight.  He  mounted  his  horse  and 
swiftly  returned  to  Scotland.  Now  the  die 
was  cast.  His  only  competitor  for  the 
throne  was  Comyn.  They  met  to  confer 
over  some  plan  of  combination,  and  in  a 
dispute  which  arose,  Bruce  slew  his  rival. 
Whether  it  was  premeditated,  or  in  the  heat 
of  passion,  who  could  say  ?  But  Com}^!  was 
the  one  obstacle  to  his  purpose,  and  he  had 
slain  him,  had  slain  the  highest  noble  in  the 
state  !  All  of  England,  and  now  much  of 
Scotland,  would  be  against  him  ;  but  he 
could  not  go  back.  He  resolved  upon  a  bold 
course.  He  went  immediately  to  Scone,  as- 
cended the  throne,  and  surrounded  by  a 
small  band  of  followers,  was  crowned  King 
of  Scotland,  March  27,  1306.   He  soon  learned 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      267 

the  desperate  nature  of  the  enterprise  upon 
which  he  had  embarked.  There  was  noth- 
ing in  his  past  to  inspire  the  confidence  of 
the  patriots  at  the  North,  and  at  the  South 
he  was  pursued  with  vindictive  fury  by  the 
friends  of  tlie  slain  Comyn.  Edward,  stirred 
as  never  before,  was  preparing  for  an  in- 
vasion, issuing  proclamations  ;  no  mercy  to 
be  shown  to  the  rebels.  Bruce' s  English 
estates,  inherited  from  his  mother,  were  con- 
fiscated, and  an  outlaw  and  a  fugitive,  he 
was  excommunicated  by  the  Pope !  Un- 
able to  meet  the  forces  sent  by  Edward,  lie 
placed  his  Queen  in  the  care  of  arehitive  and 
then  disappeared,  wandering  in  the  High- 
lands, hiding  for  one  whole  winter  on  the 
coast  of  Ireland  and  supposed  to  be  dead. 
His  Queen  and  her  ladies  were  torn  from 
their  refuge  and  his  cousin  hanged. 

Had  Robert  Bruce  died  at  this  time  he 
would  have  been  remembered  not  as  a  pa- 
triot, but  as  an  ambitious  noble  who  perished 
in  a  desperate  attempt  to  make  himself  king. 
But  his  undaunted  soul  was  working  out  a 
diiferent  ending  to  the  story.  In  the  spring 
of  1307  he  returned  undismayed.  With  a 
small  band  of  followers  he  met  an  English 


268      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OP  SCOTLAND. 

army,  defeated  the  Earl  of  Pembroke  at 
Ayr,  and  with  this  success  the  tide  turned. 
The  people  caught  the  contagion  of  his  in- 
trepid spirit,  and  in  the  seven  years  which  fol- 
lowed, he  shines  out  as  one  of  the  great  cap- 
tains of  history.  By  the  year  1313  every 
castle  save  Berwick  and  Stirling  had  sur- 
rendered to  him.  Vast  preparations  were 
made  in  England  for  the  defence  of  this  lat- 
ter stronghold. 

It  was  on  the  burn  (stream)  two  miles  from 
Stirling  that  Bruce  assembled  his  30,000 
men,  and  made  his  plans  to  meet  Edward 
with  his  100,000.  On  the  morning  of  the  28d 
of  June,  1314,  he  exhorted  his  Scots  to  fight 
for  their  liberty.  How  they  did  it,  the  world 
will  never  forget !  And  while  Scotland  en- 
dures, and  as  long  as  there  are  Scotsmen 
with  warm  blood  coursing  in  their  veins, 
they  will  never  cease  to  exult  at  the  name 
Bannockburn !  Thirty  thousand  English 
fell  upon  the  field.  Twenty-seven  barons 
and  two  hundred  knights,  and  seven  hun- 
dred squires  were  lying  in  the  dust,  and 
twenty-two  barons  and  sixty  knights  were 
prisoners.  Never  was  there  a  more  crushing 
defeat. 


A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  SCOTLAND .      269 

Still  England  refused  to  acknowledge  the 
independence  of  the  kingdom,  and  Bruce 
crossed  the  border  with  his  army.  The  Pope 
was  appealed  to  by  Edward,  and  issued  a 
pacifying  bull  in  1317,  addressed  to  "Edward, 
King  of  England,"  and  "the  noble  Robert 
de  Bruis,  conducting  himself  as  King  of 
Scotland."  Bruce  declined  to  accept  it  until 
he  was  addressed  as  King  of  Scotland,  and 
then  proceeded  to  capture  Berwick.  The 
Scottish  Parliament  sent  an  address  to  the 
Pope,  from  which  a  few  interesting  extracts 
are  here  made : 

*'lt  has  pleased  God  to  restore  us  to  lib- 
erty, by  one  most  valiant  Prince  and  King, 
Lord  Robert,  who  has  undergone  all  manner 
of  toil,  fatigue,  hardship,  and  hazard.  To 
him  we  are  resolved  to  adhere  in  all  things, 
both  on  account  of  his  merit,  and  for  what  he 
has  done  for  us.  But,  if  this  Prince  should 
leave  those  principles  he  has  so  nobly  pur- 
sued, and  consent  that  we  be  subjected  to 
the  King  of  England,  we  will  immediately 
expel  him  as  our  enemy,  and  will  choose 
another  king,  for  as  long  as  one  hundred  of 
US  remain  alive,  we  will  never  be  subject  to 
the  English.     For  it  is  not  glory,  nor  riches, 


270      A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  SCOTLAND. 

nor  honor,  but  it  is  liberty  alone,  tliat  vve 
contend  for,  which  no  honest  man  will  lose 
but  with  his  life." 

The  spirit  manifested  in  this  had  its  effect, 
and  the  Pope  consented  to  address  Bruce  by 
his  title,  "King  of  Scotland."  After  delaying 
the  evil  day  as  long  as  possible,  England  at 
last,  in  1328,  concluded  a  treaty  recognizing 
Scotland  as  an  independent  kingdom,  in 
which  occurred  these  words :  "  And  we  re- 
nounce whatever  claims  we  or  our  ancestors 
in  bygone  times  have  laid  in  any  way  over 
the  kingdom  of  Scotland." 

Concerning  the  character  of  Robert  Bruce, 
historians  are  not  agreed.  To  fathom  his 
motives  would  have  been  difficult  at  the 
time  ;  how  much  more  so  then  after  six  cen- 
turies. We  only  know  that  he  leaped  into 
an  arena  from  which  nature  and  circum- 
stances widely  separated  him,  gave  a  free 
Scotland  to  her  people,  and  made  himself  the 
hero  of  her  great  epic. 

When  we  see  the  spiritless  sons  of  Bruce 
in  the  hands  of  base  intriguing  nobles,  trail- 
ing their  great  inheritance  in  the  mire,  we 
exclaim  :  Was  it  for  this  that  there  was  such 
magnificent  heroism?    Was  it  worth  seven 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.       271 

years  of  such  struggle  to  emancipate  the 
land  from  a  foreign  tyranny,  only  to  have  it 
fall  into  a  degrading  domestic  one  ?  But  the 
reassuring  fact  is,  that  the  governing  power 
of  a  nation  is  only  an  incident,  more  or  less 
imperfect.  The  life  is  in  the  people.  There 
was  not  a  cottage  nor  a  cabin  in  all  of  Scot- 
land that  was  not  ennobled  by  the  conscious- 
ness of  what  had  been  done.  Men's  hearts 
were  glad  with  a  wholesome  gladness ;  and 
ever}'"  child  in  the  land  was  lisping  the  names 
of  Wallace  and  of  Bruce  and  learning  the 
story  of  their  deeds.  But  for  all  that,  the 
period  following  the  death  of  the  great  King 
and  Ca})tain  is  a  disappointing  one,  and  we 
are  not  tempted  to  linger  w^iile  the  incapable 
David  II.  wears  his  father's  crown,  and  while 
the  son  of  Baliol,  instigated  by  England,  is 
troubling  the  kingdom,  and  even  having  him- 
self crowned  at  Scone  ;  and  while  Edward 
III.,  until  attracted  by  more  tempting  fields 
in  France,  is  invading  the  land  and  recapt- 
uring its  strongholds.  The  limJt  of  humilia- 
tion seems  to  be  reached  when  David  II.,  in 
the  absence  of  an  heir,  proposes  to  leave  his 
throne  to  Lionel,  son  of  Edward  III. ! 
When  Robert  Bruce  bestowed  his  daugh- 


272      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

ter,  Marjory,  upon  the  High  Steward  of  Scot- 
land, he  determined  the  course  of  history  in 
two  countries  ;  in  England  even  more  than 
in  Scotland.  The  office  of  Steward  was  the 
highest  in  the  realm.  Since  the  time  of 
David  I.  it  had  been  hereditary  in  one 
family,  and  according  to  a  prevailing  cus- 
tom, to  which  many  names  now  bear  testi- 
mony, the  official  designation  had  become 
the  family  name.  The  marriage  of  Robert 
Stewart  (seventh  High  Steward  of  his  house) 
to  Marjory  Bruce  was  destined  to  bear  con- 
sequences involving  not  alone  the  fate  of 
Scotland,  but  leading  to  a  transforming 
revolution  and  the  greatest  crisis  in  the  life 
of  England.  As  the  Weird  Sisters  promised 
to  Banquo,  this  Stewart  was  "to  be  the 
fader  of  mony  Kingis,"  for  Marjory  was  the 
ancestress  of  fourteen  sovereigns,  eight  of 
whom  were  to  sit  upon  the  throne  of  Scot- 
land, and  six  upon  those  of  both  England 
and  Scotland  (1371  to  1714,  three  hundred 
and  forty-three  years). 

Marjory's  son,  Robert  II.,  the  first  of  the 
Stuart  kings,  was  crowned  at  Scone  in  1371. 
His  natural  weakness  of  character  made  him 
the  mere  creature  of   hii  determined  and 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      273 

ambitious  brother,  tlie  Duke  of  Albany,  who, 
in  fact,  held  the  state  in  his  hand  until  far 
into  the  succeeding  reign  of  Robert  III., 
which  commenced  in  1390.  The  nobles  had 
now  established  a  ruinous  ascendancy  in  the 
state,  and  so  abject  had  the  King  become, 
that  Robert  III.  was  paying  annual  grants 
to  the  Duke  of  Albany  and  others  for  his 
safety  and  that  of  his  heir  In  spite  of  this, 
his  eldest  son,  Rothesay,  was  abducted  by 
Albany  and  the  Earl  of  Douglas,  and  mys- 
teriously died,  it  is  said  of  starvation.  The 
unhappy  King  then  sent  Prince  James,  his 
second  son,  to  France  for  safety  ;  but  he 
was  captured  by  an  English  ship  by  the 
way,  and  lodged  in  the  Tower  of  London  by 
Henry  IV.  When  Robert  III.  died  immedi- 
ately after  of  a  broken  heart,  the  captive 
Prince  was  proclaimed  king  (1406),  and  his 
uncle,  the  Duke  of  Albany,  the  next  in  royal 
succession,  ruled  the  kingdom  in  name,  as 
he  had  for  many  years  in  fact. 

There  existed  between  France  and  Scot- 
land that  sure  bond  of  friendship  between 
nations — a  common  hatred.  This  had  given 
birth  to  a  political  alliance  which  was  to  be 
a   thorn  in  the   side  of  England  for  many 


274      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

years.  French  soldiers  and  Frencli  gold 
strengthened  Scotland  in  her  chronic  war 
with  England,  and  m  return  the  Scots  sent 
their  soldiers  to  the  aid  of  the  Dauphin  of 
France.  It  was  this  which  gave  such  value 
to  the  royal  prisoner.  He  could  be  used  by 
Henry  IV.  to  restrain  the  French  alliance, 
and  also  to  keep  in  check  the  ambitious 
Duke  of  Albany,  by  the  fact  that  he  could 
in  an  hour  reduce  hirn  to  insignificance  by 
restoring  James  to  his  throne. 

Such  were  some  of  the  influences  at  work 
during  the  eighteen  years  while  the  Scottish 
Prince  with  keen  intelligence  was  drinking 
in  the  best  culture  of  his  age,  and  at  the 
same  time  studying  the  superior  civilization 
and  government  of  the  land  of  his  captivity. 
He  seems  to  have  studied  also  to  some 
effect  the  affairs  of  his  own  kingdom.  He 
Was  released  in  1424,  crowned  at  Scone,  and 
a  new  epoch  commenced.  He  had  resolved 
to  break  the  power  of  the  nobles,  and  with 
extraordinary  energy  he  set  about  his  task  ! 
There  was  a  long  and  unsettled  account  with 
liis  own  relatives.  He  knew  well  who  had 
liumiliated  and  broken  his  father's  heart, 
and  starved  to  death  his  brother  Rothesay, 


A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  SCOTLAND.      275 

and,  as  he  believed,  had  also  conspired  with 
Henry  IV.  for  his  own  capture  and  eighteen 
years'  captivity.  The  old  conspirator  who 
had  been  the  chief  author  of  these  things 
had  recently  died,  but  his  son  wore  his 
title.  So  the  Duke  of  Albany  (the  King's 
cousin)  and  a  few  of  the  most  conspicuous  of 
the  conspirators  were  seized,  tried,  and  one 
after  another  live  of  the  King's  kindred  died 
by  the  axe,  in  front  of  Stirling  Castle.  It 
was  one  of  those  outbursts  of  wrath  after 
a  long  period  of  wrongdoing,  terrible  but 
wholesome.  An  unscrupulous  nobility  had 
wrenched  the  power  from  the  Crown,  and  it 
must  be  restored,  or  the  kingdom  would 
perish.  This  disease,  common  to  European 
monarchies,  could  only  be  cured  by  just 
such  a  drastic  remedy  ;  successfully  tried 
later  in  France,  by  Louis  XI.  (fifteenth  cen- 
tury), by  Ivan  the  Terrible  in  Russia  (six- 
teenth century),  and  by  slower  methods 
accomplished  in  England,  commencing  with 
William  the  Conqueror,  and  completed 
when  great  nobles  were  cringing  at  the 
feet  of  Henr}'-  VIII.  There  are  times  when 
a  tyrant  is  a  benefactor.  And  when  a  cen- 
tralized, or  even  a  despotic,  monarchy  sup- 


276      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

plants  an  oligarcliy,  it  is  a  long  step  in 
progress. 

This  ablest  of  the  Stuart  kings  was  assas- 
sinated in  1437  by  the  enemies  he  had  shorn 
of  power,  his  own  kindred  removing  the 
bolts  to  admit  his  murderers.  He  was  the 
only  sovereign  of  the  Stuart  line  who  inher- 
ited the  heroic  qualities  of  his  great  ances- 
tor Robert  Bruce,  a  line  which  almost  fa- 
tally entangled  England,  and  sprinkled  the 
pages  of  history  with  tragedies,  four  out  of 
the  fourteen  dying  violent  deaths,  two  of 
broken  hearts,  while  two  others  were  be- 
headed. 

It  is  a  temptation  to  linger  for  a  moment 
over  the  personal  traits  of  James  I.  We 
shall  not  find  again  among  Scottish  kings 
one  who  is  possessed  of  "every  manly  ac- 
complishment," one  who  plays  upon  the  or- 
gan, the  flute,  the  psaltery,  and  upon  the 
harp  "like  another  Orpheus,"  who  draws 
and  paints,  is  a  poet,  and  what  all  the  world 
loves — a  lover.  It  was  his  pure,  tender,  ro- 
mantic passion  for  Lady  Jane  Beaufort, 
whom  he  married,  just  before  his  return  to 
his  kingdom,  which  inspired  his  poem,  "The 
Kingis  Quhaiir"  (the  King's  book),  a  work 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      277 

never  approached  by  any  other  poet-king, 
and  which  marked  a  new  epoch  in  tlie  his- 
tory of  Scottish  poetry.  It  is  the  story  of 
his  life  and  his  love — a  fantastic  mingling  of 
fact  and  allegory  after  the  fashion  of  Chau- 
cer and  other  mediaeval  writers.  It  is  pleas- 
ant to  fancy  that  a  sympathetic  friendship 
may  have  existed  between  the  unfortunate 
youth  and  the  warm  -  hearted,  impulsive 
Prince  Hal,  who,  immediately  upon  his  ac- 
cession as  Henry  V.,  had  James  transferred 
from  the  Tower  to  Windsor.  There  it  was 
he  spent  the  last  ten  years  of  his  captivity, 
there  he  met  Lady  Jane  Beaufort,  and  wrote 
a  great  part  of  his  poem. 

The  turbulence  which  had  been  checked 
by  the  splendid  energy  of  James  I.,  revived 
with  increased  fury  after  his  death.  The 
fifty  years  in  which  James  II.  and  James 
HI.  reigned,  but  did  not  govern,  is  a  mean- 
ingless period,  over  which  it  would  be  folly 
to  linger.  If  it  had  any  purpose  it  was  to 
show  how  utterly  base  an  unpatriotic  feu- 
dalism could  become  —  Douglases,  Craw- 
fords,  Livingstons,  Crichtons,  Boyds,  like 
ravening  beasts  of  prey  tearing  each  other  to 
pieces,  and  trying  to  outwit  by  perfidy  when 


278      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

force  failed  ;  Livingstons  holding  tlie  infant 
King,  James  IL,  a  prisoner  in  Stirling  Castle, 
of  which  they  were  hereditary  governors, 
and  together  with  the  Crichtons  entrapping 
the  young  Earl  of  Donglas  and  his  brother 
by  an  invitation  to  dine,  and  then  behead- 
ing them  both — so  that  it  is  with  satisfaction 
v/e  learn  of  the  King's  reaching  his  majority 
and  beheading  a  half-score  of  Livingstons  at 
Edinburgh  Castle  !  Then  to  the  Douglases 
is  traced  every  disorder  in  the  realm,  and 
with  relief  we  hear  of  their  disgrace  and 
banishment,  only  to  have  the  Boyds  come 
upon  the  scene  with  a  villanous  cons23iracy 
to  seize  the  young  King,  James  IlL,  they, 
after  rising  to  power,  swiftly  and  tragically 
to  fall  again.  History  could  not  afford  a 
more  shameful  and  senseless  display  of  de- 
pravity than  in  these  human  vultures.  A 
Scottish  writer  says:  "There  was  nothing 
but  slaughter  in  this  realm,  every  party  ly- 
ing in  wait  for  another,  as  they  had  been 
setting  tinchills  (snares)  for  wild  beasts." 

In  viewing  this  raging  storm  of  anarchy 
one  wonders  what  had  become  of  the  peo- 
ple. We  hear  nothing  of  them.  They  had 
no  political  influence,  and  if  they  had  repre- 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      279 

sentatives  in  Parliament,  they  were  dumb, 
for  the  voice  of  the  Commons  was  never 
heard.  But  tliere  is  reason  to  believe  that, 
in  spite  of  the  ferocious  feudal  and  social 
anarchy,  the  urban  population  and  the  peas- 
antry were  groping  their  way  into  a  higher 
civilization.  That  better  ways  of  living  pre- 
vailed we  may  infer  from  sumptuary  laws 
enacted  by  James  III.,  and  in  the  founding 
of  three  universities  (St.  Andrew's,  1411, 
Glasgow,  1450,  and  Aberdeen,  1494)  there 
is  sure  indication  that  beneath  the  turbid 
political  surface  there  flowed  a  stream  of  in- 
tellectual life.  From  these  literary  centres 
"learned  Scotsmen"  began  to  swarm  over 
the  land,  and  a  solid  scholarship  was  the 
aim  of  ambitious  youths,  who  found  in  that 
the  road  to  posts  of  distinction  once  won 
only  by  arms.  There  was  a  small  body  of 
national  literature.  Barbour's  poem,  "The 
Brus,"  led  the  way  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
then  King  James's  poem  in  the  fifteenth, 
then  Henryson  and  Boece,  and  the  proces- 
sion of  splendid  names  had  commenced 
which  was  to  be  joined  in  later  ages  by 
Burns,  Scott,  and  Carlyle. 
England  had  now  become  the  refuge  for 


■28o      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

disgraced  and  intriguing  nobles.  The  Duke 
of  Albany,  the  Earl  of  Douglas,  and  others 
entered  into  negotiations  with  the  English 
King,  offering  to  acknowledge  his  feudal 
superiority,  he  in  return  promising  to  give 
the  crown  of  Scotland  to  Albany.  A  battle 
between  the  English  and  Scottish  forces  took 
place  in  the  vicinity  of  Stirling.  During  the 
engagement  King  James  was  thrown  from 
his  horse  and  then  slain  by  his  miscreant 
nobles  (1488).  The  scheme  was  a  failure, 
and  the  son  of  the  murdered  King  was  at 
once  crowned  James  IV.  Henry  VII.,  now 
King  of  England,  conceived  a  plan  of  ce- 
menting friendly  relations  between  the  two 
kingdoms  by  the  marriage  of  his  daughter, 
Princess  Margaret,  with  the  young  King. 
This  union,  so  fruitful  in  consequences,  took 
place  at  Holyrood  in  1502,  amid  great  re- 
joicings. 

During  the  two  preceding  reigns  the  rela- 
tions of  Scotland  with  her  great  neighbor 
were  comparatively  peaceful.  But  in  1509 
Queen  Margaret's  brother,  Henry  VIIL,  was 
crowned  King  of  England.  Family  ties  sat 
very  lightly  upon  this  monarch,  and  his 
hostile  purposes  soon  became  apparent,  and 


I  A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  SCOTLAND.      281 

the  friendly  relations  were  broken.  A  war 
between  France  and  England  was  the  signal 
for  a  renewal  of  the  old  alliance  between  the 
French  and  the  Scots.  James  himself  led  an 
army  against  that  of  his  brother-in-law 
across  the  Tweed,  and  at  Flodden  met  an 
overwhelming  defeat  and  his  own  death 
(1513). 

Europe  was  now  unconsciously  on  the 
brink  of  a  moral  and  spiritual  revolution, 
a  revolution  which  was  going  to  affect  no 
country  more  profoundly  than  Scotland. 
The  Church  of  Rome,  deeply  embedded  and 
wrought  into  the  very  structure  of  every 
European  nation,  seemed  like  a  part  of  nat- 
ure. As  soon  would  men  have  expected  to 
see  the  foundations  of  the  continent  removed, 
and  yet  there  was  a  little  rivulet  of  thought 
coursing  through  the  brain  of  an  obscure 
monk  in  Germany  which  was  going  to  un- 
dermine and  overthrow  it,  and  cause  a  new 
Christendom  to  arise  upon  its  ruins.  And 
strangely,  too,  as  if  by  pre-arrangement,  that 
wonderful  new  device — the  printing  press — 
stood  read}^,  waiting  to  disseminate  the  prop- 
aganda of  a  Reformed  Church  I 

But  kings  and  nobles  went  on  as  before 


282      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

with  their  absorbing  game.  The  infant 
James  V.  was  proclaimed  Iving.  The  condi- 
tions which  liad  disgraced  the  minority  of  his 
predecessors  were  repeated,  and  until  he  was 
eighteen  he  was  virtually  a  prisoner ;  then 
with  relentless  severity  he  turned  upon  the 
traitors.  The  Reformation  which  was  assum- 
ing great  proportions  was  beginning  to  creep 
into  Scotland.  The  Catholic  King,  with  a 
double  intent,  placed  Primates  of  the  Church 
in  all  the  great  offices,  and  the  excluded 
nobles  began  to  lean  toward  the  new  faith. 
Luther's  works  were  prohibited  and  strin- 
gent measures  adopted  to  drive  heretical  lit- 
erature out  of  the  land.  When,  for  reasons 
we  all  know,  Henry  YIII.  became  an  illus- 
trious convert  to  Protestantism,  he  tried  to 
bring  about  a  marriage  between  his  nephew, 
James,  and  his  3"0ung  daughter.  Princess 
Mary  ;  at  the  same  time  urging  his  nephew 
to  join  him  in  throwing  off  the  authority  of 
the  Pope.  But  James  made  a  choice  preg- 
nant with  consequences  for  England.  He 
married,  in  1538,  Mary,  daughter  of  the  great 
Duke  of  Guise  in  France  ;  thus  rejecting  tlie 
peaceful  overtures  of  his  uncle,  Henry  VIIT., 
and    confirming   the    French    alliance    and 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      283 

the  anti-Protestant  policy  of  liis  kingdom. 
Henry  was  displeased,  and  commenced  an 
exasperating  course  toward  Scotland.  There 
was  a  small  engagement  with  the  English  at 
Solway  Moss,  which  ended  in  a  panic  and 
defeat  of  the  Scots.  This  so  preyed  upon 
tlie  mind  of  the  King  that  his  spirit  seemed 
broken.  The  news  of  the  birth  of  a  daugh- 
ter— Mary  Stuart — came  to  him  simultan- 
eously with  that  of  the  defeat.  He  was  full 
of  vague,  tragic  forebodings,  sank  into  a 
melancholy,  and  expired  a  week  later  (1542). 
The  little  Queen  Mary  at  once  became  the 
centre  of  state  intrigues.  Henry  VIII.  se- 
cured the  co-operation  of  disaffected  Scotch 
nobles  in  a  plan  to  place  her  in  his  hands  as 
the  betrothed  of  his  son.  Prince  Edward.  A 
treaty  of  alliance  was  drawn  and  signed, 
agreeing  to  the  marriage,  with  the  usual 
condition  of  the  feudal  lordship  of  the  Eng- 
lish King  over  Scotland.  The  Scottish  Par- 
liament, through  the  efforts  of  Cardinal 
Beaton,  rejected  the  proposal,  and  the  furi- 
ous Henry  declared  war,  with  instructions 
to  sack,  burn,  and  put  to  death  without 
mercy.  Cardinal  Beaton's  destruction  being 
especially   enjoined.     The  Cardinal,  in   the 


284      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

meantime,  was  trying  to  stamp  out  tlie  "Re- 
form-fires  which  were  spreading  with  ex- 
traordinary swiftness.  There  were  execu- 
tions and  banishments.  AVishart,  the  Re- 
former and  friend  of  John  Knox,  was  burned 
at  the  stake.  Following  this  there  was  a 
conspiracy  for  the  death  of  the  Cardinal,  who 
was  assassinated,  and  his  Castle  of  St.  An-  \ 
drew  became  the  stronghold  of  the  conspir- 
ators. John  Knox,  for  his  own  safety,  took 
refuge  with  them,  and  upon  the  surrender  of 
the  castle  to  a  French  force,  Knox  was  sent 
a  prisoner  to  the  French  galleys. 

The  infant  Queen,  now  six  5^ears  old,  was 
betrothed  to  the  grandson  of  Francis  I.  and 
conveyed  by  Lord  Livingston  to  France  for 
safe-keeping  until  her  marriage.  Her  mother, 
Mary  of  Guise,  was  Regent  of  Scotland,  and 
doing  her  best  to  stem  the  tide  of  Protest- 
antism. The  spread  of  the  Reformed  faith 
was  amazing.  It  took  on  at  first  a  form 
more  ethical  than  doctrinal.  It  was  against 
the  immoralities  of  the  clergy  that  a  sternly 
moral  people  rose  in  its  wrath,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  was  the  reading  of  the  Script- 
ures, and  interpreting  them  without  author- 
ity, for  which  men  were  condemned  to  the 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      2S5 

stake,  their  accusers  saying,  "What  shall 
we  leave  to  the  bisliops  to  do,  wlien  every 
man  sliall  be  a  babbler  about  the  Bible?" 
Carlyle  says  the  Reformation  gave  to  Scot- 
land  a  soul.  But  it  might  have  fared  differ- 
ently had  not  a  co-operating  destiny  at  the 
same  time  given  Scotland  a  John  Knox ! 
Knox  was  to  the  Reformed  Church  in  Scot- 
land what  the  body  of  the  tree  is  to  its 
branches.  He  not  only  poured  his  own  un- 
compromising life  into  the  branches,  but 
then  determined  the  direction  in  which  they 
should  inflexibly  grow.  Knox  had  been  the 
friend  and  disciple  of  Calvin  in  Geneva. 
The  newly  awakened  soul  in  Scotland  fed 
upon  the  theology  of  that  great  logician  as 
the  bread  of  heaven,  and  Calvinism  was  for- 
ever  rooted  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  the 
people. 

The  marriage  of  Queen  Mary  with  the 
Dauphin  had  been  quickly  followed  b}^  the 
death  of  Ilenry  II.,  and  her  j^oung  consort 
was  King  of  France.  Queer.  Elizabeth,  in  re- 
sponse to  an  appeal  from  the  Reformed 
Church,  sent  a  fleet  and  soldiers  to  meet  the 
powerful  French  force  which  would  now 
surely  come.     But  the  reign  of  Francis  II. 


286      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

was  brief.  In  1560  tidings  came  that  lie  was 
dead.  Mary  now  resolved  to  return  to  her 
own  kingdom.  Elizabeth  tried  to  intercept 
her  by  the  way,  but  she  arrived  safely  and 
was  warmly  welcomed.  She  was  nineteen, 
beautiful,  gifted,  rarely  accomplished,  had 
been  trained  in  the  most  brilliant  and  gayest 
capital  in  Europe,  and  was  a  fervent  Catho- 
lic. She  came  back  to  a  land  which  had  by 
Act  of  Parliament  prohibited  the  Mass  and 
adopted  a  religious  faith  she  considered 
heretical,  and  a  land  where  Protestantism  in 
its  austerest  form  had  become  rooted,  and 
where  John  Knox,  its  sternest  exponent,  held 
the  conscience  of  the  joeople  in  his  keeping. 
What  to  her  were  only  simple  pleasures, 
were  to  them  deadly  sins.  When  the  Mass 
was  celebrated  after  her  return,  so  intense 
was  the  excitement,  the  chapel-door  had  to 
be  guarded,  and  Knox  proclaimed  from  the 
pulpit,  that  "an  army  of  10,000  enemies 
would  have  been  less  fearful  to  him"  than 
this  act  of  the  Queen." 

During  the  winter  in  Edinburgh  the  gaye- 
ties  gave  fresh  offence.  Knox  declared  that 
"  the  Queen  had  danced  excessively  till  after 
midnight."     And  then  he  preached  a  sermon 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      287 

on  the  "Vices  of  Princes,"  which  was  an 
open  attack  upon  her  uncles,  the  Guises  in 
France.  Mary  sent  for  the  preacher,  and  re- 
proved  him  for  disrespect  in  trying  to  make 
her  an  object  of  contempt  and  hatred  to  her 
people,  adding,  "  I  know  that  my  uncles  and 
ye  are  not  of  one  religion,  and  therefore  I  do 
not  blame  3'ou,  albeit  you  have  no  good  opin- 
ion of  them."  The  General  Assembly  passed 
resolutions  recommending  that  it  be  enacted 
by  Parliament  that  "all  papistical  idolatry 
should  be  suppressed  in  the  realm,  not  alone 
among  tlie  subjects,  but  in  the  Queen's  own 
person."  Mary,  with  her  accustomed  tact, 
replied,  that  she  "was  not  yet  persuaded  in 
the  Protestant  religion,  nor  of  the  impiety 
in  the  Mass.  But  although  she  would  not 
leave  the  religion  wherein  she  had  been 
nourished  and  brought  up,  neither  would 
she  press  the  conscience  of  any,  and,  on  their 
part,  they  should  not  press  her  conscience." 
We  cannot  wonder  that  xMary  was  re- 
volted by  the  harshness  of  John  Knox  ;  nor 
can  we  wonder  that  he  was  alarmed.  A 
fascinating  queen,  with  a  rare  talent  for 
diplomacy,  and  in  personal  touch  with  all 
the  Catholic  centres  in  Europe,  was  a  for- 


2SS      A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

midable  menace  to  the  Reformed  Cliurcli  in 
Scotland,  and  would  in  all  probability  have 
temporarily  overthrown  it,  had  not  the 
course  of  events  been  unexpectedly  arrested. 
Every  Court  in  Europe  was  scheming  for 
Mary's  marriage.  Proposals  from  Spain, 
France,  Austria,  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  the 
Earl  of  Leicester  in  England  were  all  con- 
sidered. Mary's  preference  was  for  Don 
Carlos  of  Spain  ;  but  when  this  proved  im- 
l^ossible,  she  made,  suddenl}^  an  unfortu- 
nate choice.  Henry  Stewart,  who  was  Lord 
Darnley,  the  son  of  the  Earl  of  Lennox,  was, 
like  herself,  the  great  grandchild  of  Henry 
VII.  That  was  a  great  point  in  eligibility, 
but  the  only  one.  He  was  a  Catholic,  three 
years  younger  than  herself,  good-looking, 
weak  and  vicious.  The  marriage  was  cele- 
brated at  Holyrood  in  1565,  and  Mary  be- 
stowed upon  her  consort  the  title  of  king. 
This  did  not  satisfy  him.  He  demanded  that 
the  crown  should  be  secured  to  him  for  life ; 
and  that  if  Mary  died  childless,  his  heirs 
should  succeed.  With  such  violence  and 
insolence  did  Darnley  press  these  demands, 
and  so  oj)en  were  his  debaucheries,  that 
Mary  was  revolted  and  disgusted.    Her  chief 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      289 

minister  was  an  Italian  named  Rizzio,  a 
man  of  insigniticant,  mean  exterior,  but  as- 
tute and  accomplished.  There  seems  no 
reason  to  believe  that  Darnley  was  ever  jeal- 
ous of  the  Italian,  but  he  believed  that  he 
was  an  obstacle  to  his  ambitious  designs 
and  was  using  his  influence  with  Mary  to  de- 
feat them.  He  determined  to  remove  him. 
While  Rizzio  and  the  Queen  were  in  conver- 
sation in  her  cabinet,  Darnley  entered,  seized 
and  held  Mary  in  his  grasp,  while  his  as- 
sassins dragged  Rizzio  into  an  adjoining 
room  and  stabbed  him  to  death.  Who  can 
wonder  that  she  left  him,  saying,  "  I  shall  be 
your  wife  no  longer  !  "  Bat  after  the  birth 
of  her  infant,  three  months  later,  her  feelings 
seem  to  have  softened,  and  it  looked  like 
heroic  devotion  when  she  went  to  his  bed- 
side while  he  was  recovering  from  small-pox, 
and  had  him  tenderly  removed  to  a  house 
near  Edinburgh,  where  she  could  visit  him 
daily. 

It  will  never  be  known  whether  Mary  was 
cognizant  of  or,  even  worse,  accessory  to 
Darnley' s  murder,  which  occurred  at  mid- 
night a  few  hours  after  she  had  left  him, 
February  9,  15G7. 


290      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

Suspicion  pointed  at  once  to  the  Earl  of 
Bothwell.  The  Court  acquitted  him,  but 
public  opinion  did  not.  And  it  was  Mary's 
marriage  witli  this  man  which  was  her  un- 
doing. Innocent  or  guilty,  the  world  will 
never  forgive  her  for  having  married,  three 
months  after  her  husband's  death,  the  man 
believed  to  be  his  murderer !  Even  her 
friends  deserted  her.  A  prisoner  at  Loch- 
leven  Castle,  she  was  compelled  to  sign  an 
act  of  abdication  in  favor  of  her  son.  A  few 
of  the  Queen's  adherents,  the  Hamiltons,  Ar- 
gyles,  Setons,  Livingstons,  Flemings,  and 
others  gathered  a  small  army  in  her  support 
and  aided  her  escape,  which  was  quickly 
followed  by  a  defeat  in  an  engagement  near 
Glasgow.  Mary  then  resolved  upon  the  step 
which  led  her  by  a  long,  dark,  and  dreary 
pathway  to  the  scaffold.  She  crossed  into 
England  and  threw  herself  upon  the  mercy 
of  her  cousin,  Elizabeth. 

Immediately  upon  the  Queen's  abdication 
her  son,  thirteen  mouths  old,  was  crowned 
James  VI.  of  Scotland.  There  was  a  power- 
ful minorit}^  which  disapproved  of  all  these 
proceedings  ;  so  now  there  was  a  Queen's 
party,  a  King's  party,  the  latter,  under  the 


A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  SCOTLAXD.      291 

regency  of  Moray,  having  the  support  of  the 
Reformed  clergy.  These  conditions  promised 
a  bitter  and  prolonged  contest,  which  promise 
was  fully  realized  ;  and  not  until  1573  was 
the  party  of  the  Queen  subdued.  During 
the  minority  of  the  King  a  new  element  had 
entered  into  the  conflict.  The  Reformation 
in  Scotland  had,  as  we  have  seen,  under  the 
vigorous  leadership  of  John  Knox,  assumed 
theCalvinistic  type.  In  England,  during  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth,  a  more  modified  form  had 
been  adopted— an  episcopacy,  with  a  house 
of  bishops,  a  liturgy,  and  a  ritual.  To  the 
Scotch  Reformers  this  was  a  compromise 
with  the  Church  of  Rome,  no  less  abhorrent 
to  them  than  papacy.  The  struggle  resolved 
itself  into  one  between  the  advocates  of  these 
rival  forms  of  Protestantism,  each  striving  to 
obtain  ascendancy  in  the  kingdom,  and  con- 
trol of  the  King.  Some  of  the  most  moderate 
of  the  Protestants  a]-)proved  of  restoring  the 
ecclesiastical  estate  which  had  disappeared 
from  Parliament  with  the  Reformation,  and 
having  a  body  of  Protestant  clergy  to  sit  with 
the  Lords  and  Commons.  These  questions, 
of  such  vital  moment  to  the  consciences  of 
many,  were  to   others  merely  a  cloak  for 


292      A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  SCOTLAND. 

personal  ambitions  and  political  intrigues. 
When  James  was  seventeen  years  old,  the 
method  already  so  familiar  in  Scotland,  was 
resorted  to.  In  order  to  separate  him  from 
one  set  of  villanous  plotters,  he  was  en- 
trapped by  another  by  an  invitation  to  visit 
Euthven  Castle,  where  he  found  himself  a 
prisoner,  and  when  the  plot  failed,  the  Re- 
formed clergy  did  its  best  to  shield  the  per- 
petrators, who  had  acted  with  their  knowl- 
edge and  consent. 

But  James  had  already  made  his  choice 
between  the  two  forms  of  Protestantism,  and 
the  basis  of  his  choice  was  the  sacredness  of 
the  royal  prerogative.  A  theology  which 
conflicted  with  that,  was  not  the  one  for  his 
kingdom.  He  would  have  no  religion  in 
which  presbyters  and  synods  and  laymen 
were  asserting  authority.  The  King,  God's 
anointed,  was  the  natural  head  of  the  Church, 
and  should  determine  its  policy.  Such  was 
the  theory  which  even  at  this  early  time 
had  become  firmly  lodged  in  the  acute  and 
narrow  mind  of  the  precocious  youth,  and 
which  throughout  his  entire  reign  was  the 
inspiration  of  his  policy.  In  the  proceedings 
following   the    "  Ruthven    Raid,"    as  it   is 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      293 

called,  lie  openly  manifested  liis  determina- 
tion to  introduce  episcopacy  into  liis  king- 
dom. 

So  the  conflict  was  now  between  the  clergy 
and  the  Crown.  The  latter  gained  the  first 
victory.  Parliament,  in  1584,  affirmed  the 
supreme  authority  of  the  King  in  all  matters 
civil  and  religious.  The  act  placed  unprece- 
dented powers  in  his  hands,  saying,  "These 
powers  by  the  gift  of  Heaven  belong  to  his 
Majesty  and  to  his  successors,"  And  so  it 
was  that  in  1584  the  current  started  which, 
after  running  its  ruinous  course,  was  to  ter- 
minate in  1649  in  the  tragedy  at  AYhitehall. 
There  was  a  reaction  from  the  first  triumph 
of  divine  right,  and  in  1592  the  Act  of  Royal 
Supremacy  was  repealed,  and  the  General 
Assembly  succeeded  in  obtaining  parliamen- 
tary sanction  for  the  authority  of  the  pres- 
bytery. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church,  although  no 
longer  conspicuous  in  the  arena  of  politics, 
was  by  no  means  extinguished  in  Scotland. 
Its  stronghold  was  in  the  North,  among  the 
Highlands,  where  it  is  estimated  that  out  of 
the  14,000  Catholics  in  the  kingdom,  12,000 
were  still  clinging  with  unabated  ardor  to  the 


294      A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  SCOTLAND. 

old  religion.  It  was  this  minority,  with  many 
powerful  chiefs  for  its  leaders,  which  looked 
to  Mary  as  the  possible  restorer  of  the  faith  ; 
and  this  was  the  nurserj^  and  the  hatching- 
ground  for  all  the  plots  with  France  or  Spain 
which  for  twenty  years  were  leading  Mary 
step  by  step  toward  Fotheringay.  Whether 
the  copies  of  the  compromising  letters  which 
convicted  her  of  complicity  in  these  plots 
would  have  stood  the  test  of  an  impartial 
investigation  to-day  we  cannot  say  ;  but  we 
know  that  Mary's  tarnished  name  was  re- 
stored almost  to  lustre  by  the  fortitude  and 
dignity  with  which  she  bore  her  long  captiv- 
ity, and  met  the  moment  of  her  tragic  re- 
lease (1587).  There  is  something  in  this 
story  whicli  has  touched  the  universal  heart, 
and  the  world  still  weeps  over  it.  But  we  do 
not  hear  that  it  ever  cost  her  son  one  pang. 
James  was  twenty  years  old  when  Elizabeth 
signed  the  fatal  paper,  and  if  he  ever  made 
an  effort  to  save  his  mother  or  shed  a  single 
tear  over  her  fate,  history  does  not  mention 
it.  Perhaps  it  was  in  recognition  of  this,  or 
it  may  have  been  in  reward  for  his  cham- 
pionship of  episcopac}^,  that  Elizabeth  made 
James  her  heir  and  successor.      AVhaterer 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      295 

was  the  impelling  motive,  tlie  protracted 
struggle  between  the  two  nations  came  to  a 
strange  ending ;  not  the  supremacy  of  an 
English  king  in  Scotland,  as  had  been  so 
often  attempted,  but  the  reign  of  a  Scottish 
king  in  England.  Elizabeth  died  in  1603, 
leaving  to  the  son  of  Mary  her  crown,  and  a 
few  days  later  James  arrived  in  London,  was 
greeted  by  the  shouts  of  his  English  subjects, 
and  crowned  James  I.,  King  of  England, 
upon  the  Stone  of  Destiny. 

The  limits  of  this  sketch  do  not  permit 
more  than  the  briefest  mention  of  tlie  pe- 
riod between  the  union  of  the  crowns,  and 
the  legislative  union,  a  century  later,  when 
the  two  kingdoms  became  actually  one.  Its 
chief  features  were  the  resistance  to  en 
croachments  upon  the  polity  and  organiza- 
tion of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Scotland, 
the  cruelty  and  oppressions  used  by  Charles 
I.  to  enforce  the  use  of  the  liturgy  of  the 
Church  of  England,  the  formation  of  the 
"National  Covenant,"  a  sacred  bond  by 
which  the  Covenanters  solemnly  pledged  an 
eternal  fidelity  to  their  Church,  the  alliance 
between  the  Scotch  Covenanters  and  English 
Puritans,  and  the  consequences  to  Scotland 


296      A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

of  the  overthrow  of  the  monarchy  by  Crom- 
well. Still  later  (1G89)  came  the  rising  of  the 
Highland  chiefs  and  clans,  the  Jacobites,  as 
the  adherents  of  the  Stuarts  are  called,  an 
attempt  by  the  Catholics  in  the  North  to 
bring  about  the  restoration  of  the  exiled 
King  or  his  son,  the  Pretender. 

Statesmen  in  England,  and  some  in  Scot- 
land, believed  there  would  be  no  peace  until 
the  two  countries  were  organically  joined.  In 
the  face  of  great  opposition  a  treaty  of  union 
was  ratified  by  the  Scottish  Parliament  in 
1707.  The  country  was  given  a  representa- 
tion of  fortj^-five  members  in  the  English 
House  of  Commons,  and  sixteen  peers  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  and  it  was  provided  that 
the  Presbyterian  Church  should  remain  un- 
changed in  worship,  doctrine,  and  govern- 
ment "  to  the  people  of  the  land  in  all  suc- 
ceeding generations."  With  this  final  Act 
the  Scottish  Parliament  passed  out  of  exist- 
ence. 

The  wisdom  of  this  measure  has  been 
abundantly  justified  by  the  results — a 
growth  in  all  that  makes  for  material  pros- 
perity, a  richer  intellectual  life,  and  peace. 
After  centuries  of  anarchy  and  misrule  and 


A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND.      297 

aimless  iiplieavals,  Scotland  had  reached  a 
haven.  Her  triumph  has  been  a  moral  and 
an  intellectual  triumph,  not  political.  In 
intellectual  splendor  her  people  may  chal- 
lenge the  world,  and  in  moral  elevation  and 
in  righteousness  they  will  find  few  peers. 
But  candor  compels  the  admission  that 
Scotland  has  no  more  than  Ireland  proved 
herself  capable  of  maintaining  a  separate 
nationality.  Without  the  excuse  of  her  sis- 
ter island,  never  the  victim  of  a  foreign  con- 
quest, left  to  herself,  with  her  own  kings  and 
government  for  nearly  a  thousand  j-ears, 
what  do  we  see  ?  A  brave,  spirited,  warlike 
race  with  a  i)assion  for  libert}^  dominated 
and  actuall}^  effaced  by  vicious  kings,  in- 
triguing regents,  and  a  corrupt  nobility  ; 
only  once,  under  Wallace  and  Bruce,  rising 
to  heroic  proportions,  and  then  to  throw  off 
a  foreign  yoke  and  under  leaders  who  were 
both  of  Xorman  extraction. 

Never  once  were  her  native  oppressors 
checked  or  awed ;  never  once  did  an  out- 
raged people  unite  under  a  great  political 
leader ;  and  only  one  sovereign  after  Bruce 
(James  I.)  can  be  said  to  have  had  great 
kingly  qualities.    AVhat  are  we  to  conclude? 


298      A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  SCOTLAND. 

Are  we  not  compelled  to  believe  that  Scot- 
land reached  her  highest  destiny  when  she 
was  joined  to  England,  and  when  she  be- 
stowed her  leaven  of  righteousness  and  her 
moral  strength  and  the  genius  of  her  sons, 
and  received  in  exchange  the  political  pro- 
tection of  her  great  neighbor? 


SOVEREIGNS   AND   RULERS  OF 
ENGLAND. 


ANGLO-SAXON    LINE           ^^'^  "7.1^. 

Egbert 800 

Ethehviilf 836 

Ethelbald 857 

Ethelbcrt 860 

Ethelred 866 

Alfred 871 

Edward  the  Elder 901 

Athclstan 9^3 

Edmund 94o 

Edred 94^ 

Edwy 955 

Edgar 957 

Edward  the  Martyr 97  5 

Ethelred  the  Unready 97^ 

Edmund  Ironside 1016 

DANISH    LINE 

Canute loi? 

Harold  1 1030 

Hardi  Canute io39 

SAXON   LINE 

Edward  the  Confessor 1041 

Harold  II 1066 


300       SOVEREIGNS  AND  RULERS  OF  ENGLAND. 

NORMAN    LINE  a  d. 

William  1 1066 

William  II 1087 

Henry  I 1 100 

Stephen 1135 

PLANTAGENET    LINE 

Henry  II 1154 

Richard  1 1189 

John 1 1 99 

Henry  III 1216 

Edward  1 1272 

Edward  II 1307 

Edward  III 1327 

Richard  II i377 

HOUSE    OF    LANCASTER 

Henry  IV i399 

Henry  V 14 13 

Henry  VI 1422 

HOUSE    OF   YORK 

Edward  IV 1 46 1 

Edward  V 1483 

Richard  III 1483 

HOUSE    OF   TUDOR 

Henry  VII 1485 

Henry  VIII 1509 

Edward  VI 1547 

Mary 1553 

Elizabeth 1558 

STUART   LINE 

James  1 1603 

Charles  1 1625 

THE   COMMONWEALTH 
1649-1660 


SOVEREIGNS  AND  RULERS  OF  ENGLAND.  301 
STUART   LINE 

A.  D. 

Charles  II 1660 

James  II 1685 

HOUSE   OF   ORANGE 

William  and  Mary 168S 

STUART    LINE 

Anne 1702^ 

BRUNSWICK   LINE 

George  I i7^4 

George  II 172? 

George  III 1760 

George  IV 1820 

William  IV 1830 

Victoria 1837 

Edward  VII 1901 


BEGINNING  OF  SCOTTISH  KINGDOM 
UNDER  KENNETH  MACALPINE,  .\F- 
TER   UNION    OF   PICTS  AND    SCOTS 

Began  to  Reign 

A.  V. 

Kenneth  II 836 

Union  with  the  Picts ^^3 

Donald  V 854 

Constantine  II 858 

Ethus 874 

Gregory 875 

Donald  VI 892 

Constantine   III 903 

Malcolm  1 943 

Indulfus 952 

Duff 961 


302       SOVEREICXS  AND  RULERS  OF  ENGLAND. 

A.  D. 

Culcnus 966 

Kenneth  III 970 

Constantine  IV 994 

Grimus 996 

Malcolm  II 1004 

Duncan  1 1034 

Macbeth 1040 

Malcolm  III 1057 

Donald  VII 1093 

Duncan  II 1094 

Edgar 1098 

Alexander  1 1 107 

David  1 1 1 24 

Malcolm  IV 1153 

William 1165 

Alexander  II 1214 

Alexander  III 1249 

INTERREGNUM 

John  Baliol 1 293 

Robert  I   (Bruce) 1306 

David  II 1330 

Edward  Baliol 1332 

Robert  II 1370 

Robert  III 1390 

INTERREGNUM 

HOUSE  OF  STUART 

James  1 1424 

James  II 1437 

James  III 1460 

James  IV 1489 

James  V 1514 

Mary  Stuart 1 544 

Sy^S?uartii°-">' "'^S 

James  VI 1567 


INDEX. 


ENGLAND 


Abelard,  53 

Act  of  Supremacy,  84 

Addison,  135 

Agincourt,  65 

Agricola,  13 

Albert,  Prince  of  Saxe-Coburg, 

159.  171 
Alfred,  King,  27,  40 
Anglo-Saxons,  15-20,  22,  39 
Anne  Boleyn,  75,  77 
Anne,  of  Cleves,  78 
Anne,  Queen  of  England,  131, 

135 
Anselm,  38 

Antoninus,  14 

Aquitainc,  65 

Army  Plot,  116 

Arthur,  King,  16 

Arthur,  Prince   48 

Atlantic  Cable,  169 

Bacon,  Francis,  95,  100 
Bacon,  Roger,  53 
Baeda,  27 

Balaklava,  Battle  of,  163 
Bank  of  England,  130 


Bannockburn,  Battle  of,  56 
Basques,  10 
Baycux  Tapestry,  ^^ 
Bedford,  Duke  of,  65 
Bible,  loi 
Bill  of  Rights,  127 
Black  Death,  58 
Black  Prince,  58 
Blenheim,  Battle  of,  133 
Boadicea,  11 
Bosworth,  Battle  of,  71 
Bothwell,  93 
Boync,  Battle  of,  127 
Bright,  John,  160,  171 
British  Association,  27 
Britons,  10,  14,  20 
Bruce,  Robert,  56 
Bruno,  86 
Buddha,  193 
Bullcr,  General,  185 
Bunker  Hill,  148 
Bunyan,  124 
Burke,  145,  149 
Burncy,  Frances,  153 
Burns,  153 
Byron,  154 


303 


304 


INDEX. 


Cade,  Jack,  66 

Caf^dmon,  26 

Caesar,  11 

Calais,  81 

Calcutta,  Black  Hole  of,  140 

Calvin,  84 

Canada,  140,  143 

Canning,  149 

Canterbury,  25,  45 

Canterbury,  Archbishop  of,  44 

Canute,  31 

Cape  of  Good  Hope,  172 

Caroline,  of  Bruns\'v'ick,  156 

Caroline,  Queen,  138 

Catharine  de  Medici,  91 

Catholicism,    Roman    Church, 

25.  63,  74-79>  83,  99.  123 
CavaUers,  123,  137 
Cawnpore,  Massacre  at,  166 
Caxton,  71 
Cerdic,  19-22 
Charles  I,  102,  118 
Charles  II,  121,  123 
Charles  V,  74 
Charles  VII,  65 
Charlotte,  Princess,  156 
Chaucer,  60 
Christianity,  18,  23,  26 
Chronicle,  149 
Church  of  England,  76,  83 
Churchill,  John,  132 
Circuits,  45 
Clarence,  Duke,  62 
Claudius,  11 
Clive,  140 
Cobden,  Richard,  160 


Coleridge,  149,  153 
Colonies,  The  Thirteen,  145 
Commonwealth,  119 
Conservatives,  137,  157 
Constance,  of  Brittany,  48 
Cook,  Captain,  143 
CornwaUis,  Lord,  148 
Court  of  Appeals,  45 
Cowper,  153 
Cr^cy,  Battle  of,  57 
Crimean  War,  162 
Cromlechs,  9 

Cromv/ell,  Oliver,  117,  119 
Cromwell,  Thomas,  77 
Cronje,  General,  185-19 1 
Crusades,  42,  47 
Culloden  Moor,  139 

Daguerre,  169 

Danes,  30 

Darnley,  Lord,  93 

Defoe,  135 

De  Wet,  189 

Dickens,  170 

Disraeli    (Lord    Beaconsfield), 

160,  171 
Domesday  Book,  36 
Drake,  Sir  Francis,  94 
Dufferin,  187 
Duncan,  31 
Dutch  East  India,  Co.,  172 

East  India  Co.,  89,  140,   I4f, 

173 
Edict  of  Nantes,  173 

Education  Bill,  195 


INDEX. 


305 


Edward  "the  Confessor,"  32 
Edward  I,  54 
Edward  II,  56 
Edward  III,  56,  62,  66 
Edward  IV,  68 
Edward  V,  70 
Edward  VI,  78,  79 
Edward  VII,  191 
Edward,  of  York,  67 
Edward,  Prince  of  Wales,  68 
Edwin,  26 
Egbert,  23 
Elizabeth,  80,  82 
Erasmus,  71 
Escurial,  86 
Exeter,  Duke  of,  69 
Exposition,  169 

Fawkcs,  Guy,  99 
Feudalism,  34,  66,  69 
Fielding,  135 
Floddcn  Field,  91 
Florida,  Cession  of,  141 
Fox,  145,  148,  149 
Franchise,  184 
Francis  I,  74 
Frith-Gilds,  40 
Fulton,  154 

Gage,  General,  147 
Geoffrey,  Count  of  Anjou,  43 
Geoffrey,  Prince,  48 
George  I,  Elector  of  Hanover, 

135,  138 
George  II,  138 
George  III,  143,  146,  151 


George  IV,  155 

George,  Prince  of  Denmark,  134 

Gilds,  40 

Gladstone,  171 

Godwin,  32 

Goldsmith,  153 

Grand  Alliance,  131,  132 

Grand  Lama,  193 

Great  Britain,  loi 

Great  Trek,  175 

Gregor)',  Pope,  24 

Grey,  Lady  Jane,  79 

Guise,  House  of,  92,  102,  123 

Guise,  Mar}-,  91 

Gunpowder  Plot,  99 

Habeas  Corpus,  123,  124 

Hadrian,  14 

Hampden,  John,  106,  H2,  116 

Hanover,  House  of,  135 

Harold,  32,  33,  38 

Hastings  (Senlac),  Battle  of,  a 

Hastings,  Warren,  149 

Havelock,  General,  167 

Hengest,  22 

Henrietta,  of  France,  103 

Henry  I,  42 

Henry  II,  44 

Henry  III,  51 

Henry  IV,  63 

Henry  V,  64 

Heniy  VI,  68 

Henry  VII,  71 

Henry  VIII,  73-79 

Henry  Tudor,  71 

High  Commission  Court,  115 


3o6 


INDEX. 


Hinterland,  176 

Horsa,  22 

House   of    Commons,    54,   63, 

87.  ii9>  156 
Howard,  John,  153 
Howard,  Katharine,  78 
Huguenots,  89,  173,  186 
Hundred  Years'  War,  65 

Iberians,  10 

India,  140,  143,  164,  168 
India,  Viceroy  of,  192-193 
Ireland,  154,  159,  194 

Jackson,  General  Andrew,  151 
James  I,  of  England,  96,  99, 

102 
James  II,  123,  125 
James  IV,  of  Scotland,  90 
James  V,  of  Scotland,  91 
James  VI,  of  Scotland,  94 
Jameson  Raid,  182,  183 
Jamestown,  Virginia,  99 
Jeffries,  Chief  Justice,  124 
Jew,  36,  51,  53,  55 
Joan  of  Arc,  65 
John,  Prince,  46 
John  of  Gaunt,  62 
Johnson,  153 
Joubert,  General,  185 
Jutes,  22 

Kaffir,  188 

Katharine,  Princess  of  Aragon, 

73 
Katharine,  Princess,  65 


Kelt,  20 

Keltic-Aryans,  9 

Keltic-Britons,  13,  55 

Keltic-Gauls,  13 

King's  Court,  42,  45 

Knox,  John,  94 

Kruger,  Paul  Stephanus,  177 

Lancaster,  Duke  of,  62 
Lancaster,  House  of,  62,  67,  71 
Laud,    Archbishop,    103,    iii, 

115 
Leicester,  Earl  of,  95 
Lexington,  Battle  of,  148 
Lhassa,  193 
Liberals,  137,  157 
Lionel  of  York,  67 
Lollards,  64 
London,  11,  12,  35 
Long  Parliament,  1 14-120 
Louis  XIV,  126 
Loyalists,  114 
Luther,  74 

Magna  Charta,  49 
Margaret,  Princess,  go 
Marlborough,  Lord,  132 
Mary  Stuart,  81,  89,  96 
Mary  Tudor,  80 
Massachusetts    Charter,     107, 

147 
Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's, 

89 
Matilda,  43 
Mayflower,  98 
Merchant  Co.,  89,  140 


INDEX. 


307 


Metabcli,  178 
Methodism,  141 
Milner,  Sir  Alfred,  184 
Milton,  124 
Monopolies,  112 
Montcalm,  140 
More,  Sir  Thomas,  73,  95 
Mortimer,  56 
Motley,  John,  186 

Napoleon  Bonaparte,  150 
Naseby,  Battle  of,  117 
Natal,  178 
Netherlands,  186 
New  England,  98 
Newton,  124 

Nightingale,  Florence,  164 
Nonconformists,  195 
Normandy,  42 
North,  Lord,  148 
Northmen,  30 

O'Conncll,  Daniel,  155 
Opus  Maius,  53 
Orange  Free  State,  175,  179 
Orleans,  Battle  of,  65 
Ouck,  Kingdom  of,  165 
Oxford,  52,  54,  59,  71 

Parliament,  54,  62,  69,  88,  105 

Parr,  Katharine,  78 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  155 

Petition  of  Right,  106,  127 

Philip  II,  of  Spain,  80,  85 

Picts,  13,  14,  23 

Pitt,  William,  142,  145 


Plantagenet,  44,  58 
Plymouth,  99 
Popular  Sovereignty,  196 
Prcsbyterianism,  114 
Pretender,  131,  137 
Pretender,  the  Young,  139 
Protectorate,  119 
Protestantism,  76,  83,  103,  121 
Puritans,  84,  98,  104,  124 
Pym,  104,  114,  116 

Quebec,  Battle  of,  144 

Railway,  154 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  89,  lor 

Reform  Act,  156 

Reformation,  75,  83 

Rhodes,  Cecil,  183 

Richard  I,  "Coeur   de  Lion," 

47 
Richard  II,  58 
Richard,  Duke  of  York,  62,  67, 

70 
Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester, 

70 
Robert,  Prince,  42 
Roberts,  General,  185 
Robsart,  Amy,  95 
Romans,  11-16 
Roundheads,  123,  137 
Royalists,  113 
Royal  Society,  27 
Russia,  160 

Sahsbury  Plain,  10,  37 
Scotland,  55,  90,  114 


3oS 


INDEX. 


Scots,  13,  14 

Scott,  153 

Sepoy  Rebellion,  165 

Seven  Years'  War,  139 

Severus,  14 

Seymour,  Jane,  78 

Shelley,  154 

Sheridan,  149,  153 

Ship  Money,  112,  146 

Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  86 

Simon  de  Montfort,  54 

Sohvay  Moss,  91 

South  Sea  Bubble,  138 

Southey,  153 

Spanish  Armada,  94 

Spectator,  135 

Spenser,  86 

Stamp  Act,  145 

Star  Chamber,  no,  115,  120 

Statute  of  Heresy,  63 

St.  Bartholomew's  Eve,  89 

Steane,  135 

Steele,  135 

Stephen,  King,  43  - 

Stephenson,  George,  154 

Stonehengc,  10,  35 

Strafford,  Earl,  no,  114 

Stuart,  Charles  Edward,  139 

Stuart,  House  of,  91,  97,  123, 

125,  139 
Suez  Canal,  171 
Supremacy,  Oath  of,  155 
Suzerainty,  180,  1S4 
Sweyn,  31 
Swift,  13s 
Sydenham  Palace,  169 


Tax  on  Tea,  146 

Tennyson,  169 

Thackeray,  169 

Thomas  k  Becket,  44 

Three  Years'  War,  189 

Tibet,  192 

Times,  149 

Tory,  125,  132,  136,  146 

Transvaal  Republic,  178,  1791 

180,  182 
Tudor,  House  of,  71 
Tyler,  Wat,  58 

Uitlanders,  182 
United  States,  149,  150 

Victor,  Prince,  187 
Victoria,  Accession  of,  159 
Virginia,  Colonization  of,  89 

Wales,  55 

Wales,  Prince  of,  55 
Walpole,  Horace,  153 
Walpole,  Robert,  136,  138 
War  of  1812  with  United  States, 

150 
Wars  of  the  Roses,  62,  67 

Warwick,  Earl  of,  66,  67 

Washington,  George,  148 

Waterloo,  150 

Watt,  James,  150 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  150,  154 

Wentworth,  Sir  Thomas,  1 10 

Wesley,  John,  141 

Westminster  Abbey,  55 


INDEX. 


309 


Whig,  125,  132,  136 

White  Ship,  43 

Wickliffe,  59,  64 

Wilberforce,  15S 

William  the  Conqueror,  32 

William,  Prince  of  Orange,  125, 

128,  130,  137 
Wilb'am  Rufus,  41 


William  IV,  156,  159 
Witenagcmot,  29 
Wolfe,  140 
Wolsey,  Chancellor,  74 

Yangtse  Valley,  194 

York,  House  of,  68 

York,  Princess  Elizabeth  of,  71 


SCOTLAND 


Aberdeen,  University  of,  297 

Act  of  Royal  Supremacy,  293 

Agricola,  249 

Albany,  Duke  of,  273,  274,  280 

Alexander  III,  25S 

Angles,  251 

Annandale,  Earl  of,  264 

Argyle,  251 

Assembly,  General,  The,  287 

Ayr,  268 

Baliol,  258,  259,  262 
Bannockburn,  268 
Beaton,  Cardinal,  283 
Beaufort,  Lady  Jane,  276 
Berwick,  268,  269 
Birnam,  254 
Boece,  252,  279 
Bothwell,  Earl  of,  290 
Boyds,  278 

Bruce,  258,  262-271,  276,  296 
Bruce,  Marjor}',  272 
Bruis,  Robert  de,  261 


Canmore,  254 

Catholic  Church,  267,  287,  293, 

296 
Comyn,  266 
Covenanters,  295 
Crichtons,  277,  278 
Cromwell,  296 

Danes   251 

Darnley,  288 

David  I,  King,  258,  264 

David  II,  271 

Donegal,  250 

Douglas,  Earl  of,  273,  278,  280 

Duncan,  251,  254 

Dundee,  262 

Dunsinnane,  254 

Edgar  the  Athcling,  255 
Edward  I  of  England,  258,  261 
Edward  III  of  England,  271 
Elizabeth,    Queen,    285,    290, 

29s 


3IO 


INDEX. 


Falkirk,  262 
Fergus,  250,  252 
Flodden,  287 

Glasgow,  262,  279,  290 

Grampians,  260 

Guise,  Mary  of,  282,  284 

Henry  II  of  England,  257 
Henry  IV,  273,  274 
Henry  V,  277 
Henry  VII,  280 
Henry  VIII,  280,  282 
Henryson,  279 
Holyrood,  280,  288 

lona.  Monastery  at,  250 

Jacobites,  297 

James,  Prince,  273,  274 

James  I,  276,  277 

James  II,  278 

James  III,  278,  280 

James  IV,  280 

James  V,  282 

James  VI,  290 

James  I  of  England,  295 

John  I,  259-261 

Knox,  John,  284,  286 

Lamberton,  Bishop  of,  266 
Lennox,  Earl  of,  288 
Lionel,  Prince,  272 
Livingston,  278,  284 
Lochleven  Castle,  290 


Lothian,  251 
Luther,  282 

Macbeth,  252,  254 
Maid  of  Norway,  258 
Malcolm  II,  251 
Malcolm  III,  254,  256 
M'Alpin,  Kenneth,  251 
Margaret,  255 
Margaret,  Princess,  280 
Mary,  Princess,  282 
Moray,  291 

National  Covenanters,  295 
Normans,  256,  296 

Parliament,  Scottish,  260,  269, 

279,  283,  291,  296 
Pembroke,  Earl  of,  268 
Picts,  249,  251 

Presbyterian  Church,  293,  296 
Pretender,  The,  296 
Protestantism,  286 
Puritans,  295 

Reformation,  282,  291 
Reformed    Church,    281,    285, 

288,  291 
Richard  I,  257 
Rizzio,  289 
Robert  II,  272 
Robert  III,  273 
Rothesay,  273,  274 
Ruthven  Raid,  292 

Scone,  251,  254,  259,  274 
Scots,  249 


INDEX. 


311 


Solway  Moss,  283 

St.  Andrew's  University,  279 

St.  Columba,  250 

St.  Nimian,  250 

Steward,    High,   of    Scotland, 

272 
Stewart,  Robert,  272 
Stirling,  262,  268,  275 
Stone    of    Destiny,    250,   261, 

295 


Stuart,   Mar)',   283,   286,   288, 

295 
Stuarts,  272,  276,  296 

Tay,  River,  251 
Tweed,  251,  281 

William  the  Lion,  257 
William  Wallace,  261,  265,  296 
Wishart,  284 


IRELAND 


Act  of  Settlement,  221 
Act  of  Uniformity,  210 
Act  of  Union,  238,  241 
Ard  Reagh,  201 
Armagh,  214 

Bard,  202 

Bowes,  Lord  Chancellor,  226 

Boyne,  Battle  of,  223 

Brefny,  Lord  of,  204 

Brehon  Law,  202,  205 

Brehons,  202 

Brian  Boru,  204 

Caesair,  Lady,  199 

Catholic  Church,  210,  221-227, 

233.  239-241.  244 
Cavendish,    Lord     Frederick, 

245 
Celts,  201 
Charles  I,  213,  215 
Charles  II,  216,  218-221,  228 


Christianity,  202-203 
Church  of  England,  213 
Clan,  201 

Connaught,  201,  212,  216 
Crecy,  208 
Cromlechs,  201 
Cromwell,  216 
Crosby,  Sir  Francis,  212 
Curran,  Sarah,  239 

Danes,  204,  205 
Declaration  of  Rights,  234 
Dermot,  204 
Desmond,  House  of,  207,  211, 

212 
Desmond  Rebellion,  211 
Dillon,  242 
Dublin,  205,  209 

Edward  III,  208 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  210 
Emmet,  Robert,  239 


312 


INDEX. 


Enniskillen,  222 
Eric,  202 
Erin,  200 

Famine  in  Ireland,  241 
Fenians,  244 
Fenius,  200 
Fitzgerald,  237 
Flood,  Henry,  232,  237 

Gael,  199 
Gaelic,  200 

Geraldines,  207,  209,  237 
Geraldine  League,  211 
Ginkel,  223 
Gladstone,  244,  245 
Godfrey,  Sir  Edward  Bery,  219 
Grattan,  Henr}',  232,  237 
Great  Rebellion,  The,  of  1690, 
224 

Heber,  199,  200 
Henry  II,  204-206 
Henry  VII,  209 
Henry  VIII,  209 
Heremon,  200 
Hibernia,  200 
Home  Rule,  244 
Home  Rule  Act,  245 

Irish  Parliament,  209,  213,  221, 
234,  235,  238 

James  II,  221-222 


Kildare,  Earl  of,  210 
Kildare,  House  of,  207,  212 
Kilkenny,  Statutes  of,  208,  210, 
232 

Laud,  Archbishop,  213,  215 

Leinster,  201,  204 

Liberals,  244 

Limerick,  223 

Limerick,  Articles  of,  223 

Locke,  230 

London,  210 

Londonderry,  222 

Long  Parliament,  214 

Louis  XIV,  222 

Meagher,  242,  247 
Meath,  201,  227 
Milesius,  199 
Mitchell,  242 

Molyneux,  William,  230,  234 
Mountjoy,  213 
MuUaghmast,  212 
Munster,  201,  212 

National  Land  League,  244 
Nemehd,  199 
New  Land  Act,  246 
Normans,  206,  209 

Dates,  Titus,  219 
O'Brien,  204,  206 
O'Brien,  Smith,  242 
O'Connell,  Daniel,  240 
O'Connells,  206 
O'Moore,  Clan  of,  213 


INDEX. 


313 


O'Neill,  Shane  the  Proud,  211 
O'Neills,  206,  209,  210 
Ormond,  House  of,  207,  219, 
221 

Palatines,  206 

Pale,  Lords  of  the,  207,  209, 

214 
Parnell,  Charles,  244 
Penal  Code,  225 
Picts,  200 
Pitt,  237 

Plunkett,  Dr.,  220 
Popish  Plot,  221 
Poyning,  Sir  Edward,  209 
Poynings  Act,   209,   210,   221, 

224,  235 
Presbyterians,  214 
Protestantism,    210,    214,    315, 

219-227,  232 

Reformation,  210 

Rinucini,  216 

Robinson,  Chief- Justice,  226 

Roman  Christianity,  203 

Rome,  202 

Rorj'  O'Moore,  212 


Saarsfield,  223 

Scota,  199 

Scots,  200 

Sept,  201 

Shinar,  199 

Society  of  United  Irishmen,  236 

St.  Patrick,  202,  203 

Strafford,  213,  215 

Strongbow,  Earl  of  Pembroke, 

204 
Swift,  Dean,  231 

Tanistry,  Law  of,  202,  211 

Tara  in  Mcath,  201,  204 

Thomond,  226 

Tone,  Wolfe,  236 

Tyrone,  Earl  of,  210,  213,  214 

Ulster,  201,  210,  212,  213 

\lking,  204 

\Vhite  Boys,  236 

William  of  Orange,  322-225; 

Wolsey,  209 

Young  Ireland,  241 


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